AmigaOS Manual: AmigaDOS Command Reference

The commands in this chapter are executed from the Shell window. They are described in alphabetic order; however, some commands reserved for system use appear together at the end of the chapter.

Command Documentation

Each command documented in this manual is shown with the format, arguments, options, symbols, and abbreviations required for proper use.

This chapter and Chapter 7 provide command specifications for the AmigaDOS commands and the Workbench programs accessible through the Shell using the following standard outline:

Format: All the arguments and options accepted by a command. The special characters that indicate the particular type of argument are described on page 6-6.

Template: An optional on-line reminder of the command's format that is embedded in the program's code. Entering a command followed by a space and a question mark (for example, DIR ?) displays the template. A complete description of the template notation is found on page 6-8.

Location: The directory where the command is normally stored.

Examples: A sample use of the command. Examples are displayed in the courier typeface to distinguish them from normal text. The 1> represents the Shell prompt; do not type it as part of the example command. Lines in the example not prefaced by 1> represent the output of a command. Command names and keywords are shown in all upper case letters and file and directory names usually have the first letter in upper case; however, they do not need to be entered that way. Press Return to execute the command line.

Separate commands and arguments with spaces. Use punctuation only when required in the syntax of specific commands.

Format

The following lists the characters that indicate the type of argument shown in format listings. Do not use these characters as part of the command.

< >	Angle brackets indicate where additional information, such as a file name, must be included. This argument is required if it is not surrounded by square brackets. (For example, [<filename>]; see below.)
[ ]	Square brackets enclose optional arguments and keywords. Although not required, these arguments and keywords are accepted by the command.
{ }	Braces enclose items that can be given once or repeated any number of times. For example, {<args>} indicates that several items can be given for this argument.
\|	Vertical bars separate lists of options from which you can choose only one. For example, [OPT R\|S\|RS] indicates a choice of the R option, the S option, or both options.
<n>	A numeric value is expected by the argument.
KEYWORD	Italics indicate that the argument's keyword is required if you include that argument.
...	An ellipsis (...) after a string argument indicates that the string must be the final argument on the command line. Including a comment is not allowed. The remainder of the command line is taken as the desired string. Quotation marks are not needed around the string, even if it contains spaces. If you enter quotation marks, they are part of the string. If you specify the keyword, you can put leading and trailing spaces in the string.
command line indentation	On command lines that are long enough to wrap to the next line, this manual shows the wrapped lines as indented for documentation purposes only. In practice, the wrapped lines align with the first character of the Shell prompt.

The format for the COPY command illustrates the use of these conventions:

COPY [FROM] {<name | pattern>} [TO]<name | pattern>[ALL]
   [QUIET] [BUF | BUFFER=<n>] [CLONE] [DATES] [NOPRO]
   [COM] [NOREQ]

The [FROM] keyword is optional. If it is not specified, the command reads the file name ir pattern to copy by ist position on the command line.

The {<name | pattern>} argument must be provided. You must substitute either a file name or pattern. The braces indicate that more than one name or pattern can be given.

The [TO] keyword is optional. If it is not specified, the command reads the file name or device to copy to by its position on the command line.

The <name | pattern> argument must be provided. You can specify only one destination.

The [ALL], [QUIET], [CLONE], [DATES], [NOPRO], [COM], and [NOREQ] arguments are optional.

The [BUF | BUFFER=<n>] argument is optional. If given, the keyword is required, but you can use either BUF or BUFFER with the numerical argument. For example, both BUF=5 and BUFFER=5 are acceptable. The numerical argument can also be entered without the equals sign; spaces are optional.

Template

The Template is built into the system to serve as an on-line reminder of a command's syntax and to let you run the command from the Template line by providing a prompt at which you enter the command's arguments.

Display the Template by entering a question mark (?) after a command. The Shell assumes that you wish to run the command and it expects you to enter the command's arguments after the colon following the display. For example:

1> TYPE ?
FROM/A/M,TO/K,OPT/K,HEX/S,NUMBER/S:

Pressing Return executes the command if it does not require any arguments to run properly. Entering the arguments and their respective keywords and then pressing Return also executes the command. If a command requires arguments and you do not supply them or if you enter anything other than the required arguments, pressing Return results in a non-fatal error message. Remember that you do not need to enter the entire format for a command at this prompt, just the required arguments.

The Templates are listed with the arguments separated by commas, followed by a slash (/), and a capital letter indicating the type of argument. These slash/letter combinations are displayed to remind you of the command's particular requirements and are not entered as part of the command. The following table explains the notation:

Template Notation	Format Equivalent	Meaning
argument/A	<name>	The argument is always required.
option/K	KEYWORD	The option's keyword is required if the argument is given.
option/S	[KEYWORD]	The option works as a switch. The name of the option must be entered to specify it. Most options are switches.
value/N	<n>	The argument is numeric.
argument/M	{<name>}	Multiple items are accepted for this argument. Although there is no limit to the number of possible arguments, they must be provided before the next argument or option.
string/F	argument...	The string must be the final argument on the command line; the remainder of the command line is taken as the desired string.
=	KYWD \| KEYWORD	Two different forms of the keyword are equivalent and either are accepted. The equals sign is not entered as part of the command.

The Template for the COPY command illustrates the use of arguments:

FROM/M,TO/A,ALL/S,QUIET/S,BUF=BUFFER/K/N,
CLONE/S,DATES/S,NOPRO/S,COM/S,NOREQ/S

FROM/M indicates that the argument is required and more than one argument is acceptable.

TO/A indicates that the argument is required.

ALL/S, QUIET/S, CLONE/S, DATES/S, NOPRO/S, COM/S, and NOREQ/S indicate that the keywords act as switches. If the keyword is present in the line, the option is used.

BUF=BUFFER/K/N indicates that the BUF or BUFFER keyword (/K) is required to specify this numerical (/N) argument. Both BUF and BUFFER are acceptable keywords (=).

Keywords and their arguments can be linked with an equals sign (=) to ensure correct assignments in complex cases. For example, BUF=20.

Command Listing

ADDBUFFERS

Instructs the file system to add or display cache buffers for a drive.

Format: ADDBUFFERS <drive> [<n>]

Template: DRIVE/A,BUFFERS/N

Location: C:

ADDBUFFERS adds <n> buffers to the list of buffers available for <drive>. Although adding buffers speeds disk access, each additional buffer reduces free memory by approximately 512 bytes. The default buffer allocation is 5 for sloppy drives and 30 for hard disk partitions.

The amount of extra available memory dictates the number of buffers you can add. There is no fixed upper limit; however, adding too many buffers reduces overall system performance by taking RAM away from other system functions. Specifying a negative number subtracts that many buffers from the current allocation. The minimum number of buffers is one; however, using only one is not recommended.

Twenty buffers are recommended for a floppy drive in a 512 KB system. Use the default value recommended by the HDToolBox program for hard disks. (Display this value by selecting the Advanced Options gadget on the Partitioning screen.)

If only the <drive> argument is specified, ADDBUFFERS displays the number of buffers currently allocated for that drive.

Example

1> ADDBUFFERS DF0:
DF0: has 5 buffers

A further example of ADDBUFFERS appears in Chapter 8.

ADDNETINTERFACE

Makes network interfaces known to the protocol stack.

Format: ADDNETINTERFACE {<interface>} [QUIET] [TIMEOUT <n>]

Template: INTERFACE/M,QUIET/S,TIMEOUT/K/N

Location: C:

ADDNETINTERFACE starts the specified network interfaces, thus starting the connection. It accepts the following parameters:

INTERFACE/M	The name of the interface to add; this can be a plain interface name, such as "Ariadne", or the fully qualified file name which contains the interface configuration information. The tool expects the name of the file in question (without the prefixed path) to become the name of the interface. For historic reasons interface names cannot be longer than 15 characters. For your convenience, a wild card pattern can be specified in place of the file name to use. If several interface names are specified, they will be sorted in alphabetical order before they are added. If the interface files have icons attached, you can use tool types such as "PRI=5" or "PRIORITY=5" to select the order in which the interfaces will be sorted. Higher priority entries will appear before lower priority entries. If the priorities for two entries is identical, then the interface names will be compared. If no priority is given, the value 0 will be used.
QUIET/S	This option causes the program not to emit any error messages or progress reports. Also, if the program encounters an error it will flag this as failure code 5 which can be looked at using the "if warn" shell script command. If this option is not in effect, failure codes will be more severe and all sorts of progress information will be displayed.
TIMEOUT/K/N	If you're going to use DHCP configuration for any of the interfaces, a default timeout value of 60 seconds will limit the time an interface can take to be configured. This parameter allows you to use a different timeout value. Note that due to how the configuration protocol works, the timeout cannot be shorter than ten seconds.

The 'AddNetInterface' command can be invoked from Workbench, too. It operates on the same configuration files with the same keywords, etc. To make it work, create an icon for your interface configuration file (it must be a project icon) and put 'AddNetInterface' into its default tool. Make sure that the project has enough stack space assigned (4000 bytes minimum), then double-click on the icon. If things should go wrong, you will see an error requester pop up, and no further initialization will be done. You can configure two options in the project file's tool types: QUIET and TIMEOUT. These are identical to the two parameters of the same name you could pass on the command line; they define whether the command should print any error messages (the default is to print them) and how long the command should wait for DHCP configuration to conclude (default is a timeout of 60 seconds).

Note
This command is similar to the Unix "ifconfig" command.

Note
The program makes two passes over the configuration files to be taken into account. In the first pass information is gathered on the interfaces to add, which is subsequently used to add those interfaces found. In the second pass interfaces are configured, setting their IP addresses, etc. If anything goes wrong in the first pass, processing will stop and no second pass will be done. If anything goes wrong in either the first or the second pass, that pass will not be completed.

CONFIGURATION FILES

Interfaces are configured through files stored in the "DEVS:NetInterfaces" or "SYS:Storage/NetInterfaces" directories. These are text files whose contents are described below.

Each line of the file must correspond to an option; if a line is introduced by a '#' or ';' character it will be ignored (so are empty lines). The following options are supported:

DEVICE/K	Must be provided; the name of the SANA-II device driver. This should be the complete, fully qualified path to the driver. If no complete path is provided, the 'Devs:Networks' drawer will be checked. Thus, "DEVS:Networks/ariadne.device" is equivalent to "ariadne.device".
UNIT/K/N	Unit number of the device driver to open. The default is to use unit 0.
IPTYPE/K/N	You can use this parameter to override the packet type the stack uses when sending IP packets; default is 2048 (for Ethernet hardware).
ARPTYPE/K/N	You can use this parameter to override the packet type the stack uses when sending ARP packets. Default is 2054; this parameter only works with Ethernet hardware and should not be changed.
IPREQUESTS/K/N	The number of IP read requests to allocate and queue for the SANA-II device driver to use. The default value is 32, larger values can improve performance, especially with fast device drivers.
WRITEREQUESTS/K/N	The number of IP write requests to allocate and queue for the SANA-II device driver to use. The default value is 32, larger values can improve performance, especially with fast device drivers.
ARPREQUESTS/K/N	The number of ARP read requests to allocate and queue for the SANA-II device driver to use. The default value is 4.
DEBUG/K (possible parameters: YES or NO)	You can enable debug output for this interface (don't worry, you can always disable it later) to help in tracking down configuration problems. At this time of writing, the debug mode will, if enabled, produce information on the progress of the DHCP configuration process.
POINTTOPOINT/K (possible parameters: YES or NO)	This indicates that the device is used for point to point connections. The stack automatically figures out whether the SANA-II device driver is of the point to point type, so you should not need to specify this option.
MULTICAST/K (possible parameters: YES or NO)	This tells the stack that this device can handle multicast enabled by default anyway).
DOWNGOESOFFLINE/K (possible parameters: YES or NO)	This option is useful with point to point devices, like 'ppp.device'. When specified, bringing the interface 'down' (via the 'ConfigureNetInterface' program) or shutting down the stack will cause the associated SANA-II device driver to be switched offline (via the 'S2_OFFLINE' command).
REPORTOFFLINE/K (possible parameters: YES or NO)	When a device is switched offline, you may want to know about it. This is helpful with SLIP/PPP connections which run over a serial link which accumulates costs while it is open. When the connection is broken and the device goes offline, you will receive a brief notification of what happened. However, if you tell the library itself to shut down, no notification that a device was switched offline will be shown.
REQUIRESINITDELAY/K (possible parameters: YES or NO)	Some devices need a little time to settle after they have been opened or they will hickup and lose data after the first packet has been sent. The original 'Ariadne I' card is one such device. For these devices, the 'REQUIRESINITDELAY=YES' option will cause a delay of about a second before the first packet is sent. This option defaults to YES.
COPYMODE/K (possible parameters: SLOW or FAST)	This option is for chasing subtle bugs in the driver interface with cards like the original 'Ariadne I'. Cards like these do not support writing to the hardware transmit buffer in units other than 16 bits a piece. Default is 'SLOW', which is compatible with the Ariadne I. But if you're feeling adventurous, try the 'FAST' option (and don't complain if it doesn't work for you!).
FILTER/K (possible parameters: OFF, LOCAL, IPANDARP or EVERYTHING)	This option enables the use of the Berkeley packet filter for this particular interface. Possible choices for the key are: FILTER=OFF Disables the filter. FILTER=LOCAL Enables filtering on all IP and ARP packets that are intended for this particular interface. Packets intended for other interfaces or hosts are ignored. FILTER=IPANDARP Enables filtering on all IP and ARP packets that happen to fly by this interface, no matter whether the packets are intended for it or not. This requires that the underlying network device driver is opened for exclusive access in so-called 'promiscuous' mode. This may not work if other clients (Envoy, ACS) need to keep the driver opened. FILTER=EVERYTHING Identical to FILTER=IPANDARP, but will also filter all other kinds of packets that may show up. Default for this option is 'FILTER=LOCAL'. Note that by using this option you merely define what the filter mechanism can do and what it cannot do. The filter is not enabled when you add the interface.
HARDWAREADDRESS/K	You can specify the hardware address (layer 2 address, MAC address) this interface should respond to when it is first added and configured. This usually works only once for each interface, which means that once an address has been chosen you have to stick with it until the system is rebooted. And it also means that the first program to configure the address will manage to make its choice stick. The hardware address must be given as six bytes in hexadecimal notation, separated by colon characters, like this: HARDWAREADDRESS=00:60:30:00:11:22 Take care, there are rules that apply to the choice of the hardware address, which means that you cannot simply pick a convenient number and get away with it. It is assumed that you will want to configure an IEEE 802.3 MAC address, which works for Ethernet hardware and is six bytes (48 bits) in size.

In addition to the purely static interface configuration information you can also tell the configuration program to do something about the interfaces once they have all been added. That's when the following configuration file parameters will be taken into account:

ADDRESS/K	This configures the IP address of the interface. The parameter you supply should be an IP address in dotted-decimal notation ("192.168.0.1"). Don't pick a symbolic host name as the system may not yet be in a position to talk to name resolution server and translate the symbolic name. In place of the IP address you can also specify "DHCP" (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). As the name suggests, this will start a configuration process involving the DHCP protocol which should eventually yield the right IP address for this host. Note that this configuration procedure only works for Ethernet hardware.
ALIAS/K/M	In addition to the primary interface address you can assign several aliases to it. These must be specified in dotted-decimal notation ("192.168.0.1"). Alias addresses are added after the primary interface address has been configured.
STATE/K	By default, interfaces whose addresses are configured will switch automatically to 'up' state, making it possible for the TCP/IP stack to use them for network I/O. You can override this by using the 'STATE=DOWN' switch. The alternatives 'online' (implies 'up', but tells the underlying network interface driver to go online first) and 'offline' (implies 'down' but tells the driver to go offline first) are available as well.
NETMASK/K	This selects the subnet mask for the interface, which must be specified in dotted-decimal notation ("192.0.168.1"). In place of the subnet mask you can also specify "DHCP" (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). As the name suggests, this will start a configuration process involving the DHCP protocol which should eventually yield the right subnet mask for this host. Note that this configuration procedure only works for Ethernet hardware.
DESTINATION=DESTINATIONADDR/K	The address of the point-to-point partner for this interface; must be specified in dotted-decimal notation ("192.168.0.1"). Only works for point-to-point connections, such as PPP.
METRIC/K/N	This configures the interface route metric value. Default is 0.
MTU/K/N	You can limit the maximum transmission size used by the TCP/IP stack to push data through the interface. The interface driver will have its own ideas about the maximum transmission size. You can therefore only suggest a smaller value than the driver's preferred hardware MTU size.
CONFIGURE/K (possible parameters: DHCP, AUTO or FASTAUTO)	You can use DHCP configuration for this interface and protocol stack internals, namely the list of routers (and the default gateway) to use and the domain name servers. This option allows you to bring up the complete network configuration in one single step. You can request that a particular IP address is assigned to this interface by the DHCP process by specifying CONFIGURE=DHCP and your choice of ADDRESS=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx. If your network has no DHCP server, you may choose CONFIGURE=AUTO to use automatic IPv4 address selection, based upon a protocol called ZeroConf. This protocol will select a currently unused address from a specially designated address range. If you choose automatic configuration in a wireless network, you might want to use CONFIGURE=FASTAUTO instead of CONFIGURE=AUTO. Note that only the CONFIGURE=DHCP option will attempt to set up a default route and a set of DNS servers for you to use. The alternatives of CONFIGURE=FASTAUTO and CONFIGURE=AUTO are restricted to selecting the network interface IPv4 addresses.
LEASE/K	This is a complex option which can be used to request how long an IP address should be bound to an interface, via the DHCP protocol. Several combinations of options are possible. Here is a short list: LEASE=300 LEASE=300seconds This requests a lease of exactly 300 seconds, or five minutes. LEASE=30min This requests a lease of 30 minutes. LEASE=2hours This requests a lease of 2 hours. LEASE=1day This requests a lease of 1 day. LEASE=4weeks This requests a lease of 4 weeks. LEASE=infinite This requests that the IP address should be permanently bound. Blank spaces between the numbers and the qualifiers are supported. The qualifiers are tested using substring matching, which means for example that "30 minutes" is the same as "30 min" and "30 m". Note that the requested lease time may be ignored by the DHCP server. After all, it is just a suggestion and not an order.
ID/K	This option works along with the CONFIGURE=DHCP process. It can be used to tell the DHCP server by which name the local host should be referred to. Some DHCP servers are on good terms with their local name resolution services and will add the name and the associated IP address to the local host database. The name you can supply here cannot be longer than 255 characters and must be at least 2 characters long. Keep it brief: not all DHCP servers have room for the whole 255 characters.
DHCPUNICAST/K	Some DHCP servers may not be able to respond to requests for assigning IP addresses unless the responses are sent directly to the computer which sent the requests. In such cases you might want to use DHCPUNICAST=YES option.

Unsupported keywords in the configuration file (or typos) will be reported, along with the name of the file and the line number.

The name of the configuration file defines the name of the respective interface. Interface names must be unique, and the case of the names does not matter. For historic reasons interface names cannot be longer than 15 characters. Beyond this no restrictions on naming conventions apply.

DHCP PROTOCOL

A few words on DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). First, it only works for Ethernet hardware, so please don't try it with PPP or SLIP. Now it gets a bit technical. Unless you request an address to be permanently assigned, DHCP will assign addresses only for a limited period of time. This is called a 'lease'. Once an IP address has been assigned through DHCP, the lease will be repeatedly extended. The DHCP server may over time decide not to extend the lease or assign a new IP address to the interface. To stop the lease from getting extended over and over again, you must either change the interface's primary IP address or mark it 'down'. The library will make a brave attempt to get a DHCPRELEASE datagram out to notify the server that the previously allocated IP address is no longer in use. Don't count on it to work, though. First, the protocol stack might be going down so fast that it cannot get the datagram out. Second, when you mark an interface 'down' you will effectively pull it out of circulation, it will not send any further datagrams. Third, DHCP rides on UDP whose second name is 'unreliable datagram protocol', meaning that any datagram may get lost or corrupted and nobody will hear about it; this is rather hard on DHCP since the release message is sent only once. Don't worry. Unless you request permanent leases, the leases will eventually time out and the now unused IP address will finally return to the pool of addresses available for allocation.

Examples

Start the interface called "DSL" and run quietly.

1> AddNetInterface DSL QUIET

An example configuration file for the "Ariadne" interface, with some options commented out:

1> Type Devs:NetInterfaces/Ariadne
device=ariadne.device
unit=0
#iprequests=64
#writerequests=64
copymode=fast
#configure=dhcp
address=192.168.0.1
netmask=255.255.255.0
#alias=192.168.0.9
#hardwareaddress=00:60:30:00:11:22
#id=a3000ux
#debug=yes
#filter=everything

ADDNETROUTE

Adds message routing paths.

ALIAS

Sets or displays command aliases.

Format: ALIAS [<name>] [<string...>]

Template: NAME,STRING/F

Location: Internal

ALIAS creates aliases, or alternative names, for AmigaDOS commands. ALIAS can be used to abbreviate frequently used commands or replace standard command names with different names.

When AmigaDOS encounters <name>, it replaces it with the defined <string>, integrate the result with the rest of the command line, and attempts to interpret and execute the resulting line as an AmigaDOS command <Name> is the alias for the command and <string> is the command to be substituted for the alias.

An alias must be entered at the beginning of the command line. You can enter arguments after the alias, but you cannot create an alias to represent a series of command arguments. For example, in the following command line:

1> NEWSHELL WINDOW=CON:0/250/640/150/2SHELL/CLOSE

the WINDOW argument cannot be replaced with an alias.

You can substitute a file name or other instruction within an alias by placing square brackets ([ ]) with nothing between them in the <string>. Any argument entered after the alias is inserted at the brackets.

ALIAS <name> displays the <string> for that alias. Entering ALIAS alone lists all current aliases.

Aliases are local to the Shell in which they are defined. If you create another Shell with the NEWSHELL command, it shares the same aliases as its parent Shell. However, if you create another Shell with the Execute Command menu item, it des not recognize aliases created in your original Shell. A global lais that is recognized by all Shells can be crated by inserting the alias in the Shell-startup file.

To remove an ALIAS, use the UNALIAS command.

Example 1

1> ALIAS d1 DIR DF1:

Entering d1 displays a directory of the contents of the disk in DF1:; as if you entered DIR DF1:.

Example 2

1> ALIAS hex TYPE [ ] HEX

creates an alias called HEX that displays the contents of a specified file in hexadecimal format. The empty brackets indicate where the file name is inserted in this example. Entering:

1> hex Myfile

displays the contents of Myfile in hexadecimal format.

See also: UNALIAS. Further examples of using ALIAS appear in Chapter 8.

ARP

Address resolution display control.

Format: ARP [-a|ALL] [-d|DELETE] [-s|SET] [HOSTNAME <name>] [ADDRESS <address>] [TEMP] [PUB|PUBLISH] [PRO|PROXY] [{-f|FILE} <file name>] [-n|NONAMES|NUMBERS]
Template: -a=ALL/S,-d=DELETE/S,-s=SET/S,HOSTNAME,ADDRESS,TEMP/S,PUB=PUBLISH/S,PRO=PROXY/S,-f=FILE/K,-n=NONAMES/S=NUMBERS/S

Location: C:

ASK

Gets yes or no user input during script file execution.

Format: ASK <prompt>

Template: PROMPT/A

Location: Internal

ASK is used in scripts to write the string specified by <prompt> to the current window and then wait for keyboard input. Valid keyboard responses are Y (yes), N (no), and Return (no). Selecting Y sets the condition flag to 5 (WARN). Selecting N or pressing Return sets the condition flag to 0. Check the response using an IF statement.

If the <prompt> contains spaces, it must be enclosed in quotation marks.

Example

Assume a script contained the following commands:

ASK Continue?
IF WARN
   ECHO Yes
ELSE
   ECHO No
ENDIF

At the ASK command, Continue? Is displayed on the screen. If Y is pressed, Yes is displayed on the screen. If N or a Return alone is pressed, No is displayed.

See also: IF, ELSE, ENDIF, REQUESTCHOICE, WARN

ASSIGN

Controls assignment of logical device names to files or directories.

Format: ASSIGN [<name>:{dir}] [FROM <file name>] [TO <file name>] [LIST] [EXISTS] [DISMOUNT] [DEFER] [PATH] [ADD] [PREPEND] [REMOVE] [VOLS] [DIRS] [DEVICES] [NOREQ]

Template: NAME,TARGET/M,FROM/K,TO/K,LIST/S,EXISTS/S,DISMOUNT/S,DEFER/S,PATH/S,ADD=APPEND/S,PREPEND/S,REMOVE/S,VOLS/S,DIRS/S,DEVICES/S,NOREQ/S

Location: C:

ASSIGN allows directories to be referenced via short, convenient logical device names, rather than their usual names or complete paths. ASSIGN gives an alternative directory name, much as ALIAS permits alternative command names. The ASSIGN command can create assignments, remove assignments, or list some or all current assignments.

If the <name> and {dir} arguments are given, ASSIGN assigns the given name to the specified directory. Each time the assigned logical device name is referred to, AmigaDOS accesses the specified directory. If the <name> given is already assigned to a directory, the new directory will replace the previous directory. (Always be sure to include a colon after the <name> argument.)

If only the <name> argument is given, any existing ASSIGN of a directory to that logical device will be cancelled.

You can assign several logical device names to the same directory by using multiple ASSIGN commands.

You can assign one logical device name to several directories by specifying each directory after the <name> argument or by using the ADD or APPEND option. When the APPEND option is specified, any existing directory assigned to <name> is not cancelled. Instead, the newly specified directory is appended to the end of the assign list and the system will search for both directories when <name> is encountered. If the first directory is not available, ASSIGN will be satisfied with the newly added directory.

The PREPEND option does the same thing as the APPEND option except the additional assignment is added at the front of the assing list. The PREPEND option is available with Assing version 53.2 or higher.

To delete a name from the assign list, use the REMOVE option.

If no arguments are given with ASSIGN, or if the LIST keyword is used, a list of all current assignments will be displayed. If the VOLS, DIRS, or DEVICES switch is specified, ASSIGN will limit the display to volumes, directories, or devices, respectively.

When the EXISTS keyword is given along with a logical device name, AmigaDOS will search the ASSIGN list for that name and display the volume and directory assigned to that device. If the device name is not found, the condition flag is set to 5 (WARN). This is commonly used in scripts.

Normally, when the {dir} argument is given, AmigaDOS immediately looks for that directory. If the ASSIGN commands are part of S:startup-sequence, the directories need to be present on a mounted disk during the boot procedure. If an assigned directory cannot be found, a requester appears asking for the volume containing that directory. However, two new options, DEFER and PATH, will wait until the directory is actually needed before searching for it.

Note
The assigned name does not have to retain the name of the directory and it does not have to be in upper case. For example, the name CLIPS: or Clips: can be assigned to the Ram Disk:Clipboards directory.

The DEFER option creates a "late-binding" ASSIGN. This ASSIGN only takes effect when the assigned object is first referenced, rather than when the assignment is made. This eliminates the need to insert disks during the boot procedure that contain the directories that are assigned during the startup-sequence. When the DEFER option is used, the disk containing the assigned directory is not needed until the object is actually called upon.

For example, if you assign FONTS: to DF0:Fonts with the DEFER option, the system will associate FONTS: with whatever disk is in DF0: at the time FONTS: is called. If you have Workbench disk in DF0: at the time the FONTS: is needed, the system will associate FONTS: with that particular Workbench disk. If you later remove that Workbench disk and insert another disk containing a Fonts directory, the system will specifically request the original Workbench disk the next time FONTS: is needed.

The PATH option creates a "non-binding" ASSIGN. A non-binding ASSIGN acts like a DEFERed ASSIGN, except that it is re-evaluated each time the assigned name is referenced. This prevents the system from expecting a particular volume in order to use a particular directory (such as the situation described in the example above). For instance, if you assign FONTS: to DF0:Fonts with the PATH option, any disk in DF0: will be searched when FONTS: is referenced. As long as the disk contains a Fonts directory, it will satisfy the ASSIGN. Up until V54 DOS library, you could not assign multiple directories with the PATH option.

The PATH option is especially useful to users with floppy disk systems as it eliminates the need to reinsert the original Workbench disk used to boot the system. As long as the drive you have assigned with the PATH option contains a disk with the assigned directory name, the system will use that disk.

Instead of specifying on the command line which assignments to set up and how, you can tell the ASSIGN command to read a list of specifications from a file using the FROM option. In that file, there must be one assignment specification per line; lines beginning with the ';' character are ignored. The file could look like this:

FONTS: MyFonts:Fontdir
LIBS: SYS:Libs BigAssem:Libs PDAssem:Libs
WorkDisk: DF0: DEFER
C: DF0:C PATH

As you can see, it is possible to set up deferred and path assignments and assignment lists, too.

To complement the FROM option there is the TO option which will store the current list of assignments in a file, suitable for use with the FROM option.

The NOREQ option will prevent any "Please insert volume..." requester windows from appearing which may be triggered by attempts to make assignments to volumes which are currently unavailable. While the command will fail to establish any assignment producing such an error, a script file in which the command is used can keep on running without requiring manual intervention.

Note
The DISMOUNT option (called REMOVE in V1.3) is no longer active. From V54+ use the new dedicated C:Dismount command instead.

Example 1

1> ASSIGN FONTS: MyFonts:Fontdir

assigns the FONTS: directory to Fontdir on MyFonts:

Example 2

1> ASSIGN LIST
Volumes:
Ram Disk [Mounted]
Workbench [Mounted]
MyFonts [Mounted]

Directories:
LOCALE Workbench:Locale
KEYMAPS Workbench:Devs/Keymaps
PRINTERS Workbench:Devs/Printers
REXX Workbench:S
CLIPS Ram Disk:Clipboards
ENV Ram Disk:Env
T Ram Disk:T
ENVARC Workbench:Prefs/Env-Archive
SYS Workbench:
C Workbench:C
S Workbench:S
L Workbench:L
FONTS MyFonts:Fontdir
DEVS Workbench:Devs
LIBS Workbench:Libs
+ Workbench:Classes

Devices:
PIPE AUX RAM CON
RAW PAR SER PRT DF0

Shows a typical list of all current assignments. The plus sign indicates any additional directories with the same assignment.

Example 3

1> ASSIGN FONTS: EXISTS
FONTS: MyFonts:FontDir

is an inquiry into the assignment of FONTS:. AmigaDOS responds by showing that FONTS: is assigned to the FontDir directory of the MyFonts volume. The return code is set to 0 if it exists or to 5 if it does not.

Example 4

1> ASSIGN LIBS: SYS:Libs BigAssem:Libs ADD

is a multiple-directory assignment that creates a search path containing two Libs directories. Specifying ADD keeps the standard SYS:Classes assignment from being removed. These directories are searched in sequence each time LIBS: is invoked.

Example 5

1> ASSIGN WorkDisk: DF0: DEFER
1> ASSIGN WorkDisk: EXISTS
WorkDisk <DF0:>

sets up a late-binding assignment of the logical device WorkDisk:. Until the first time you refer to the name WorkDisk:, you do not need to insert it in DF0: ASSIGN shows DF0: enclosed in angle brackets to indicate that it is DEFERred. After the first reference to WorkDisk:, the volume name of the disk that was in DF0: replaces <DF0:>.

Example 6

1> ASSIGN C: DF0:C PATH
1> ASSIGN C: EXISTS
C [Df0: C]

will reference the C directory of whatever disk is in DF0: at the time a command is searched for. Notice that ASSIGN shows DF0:C in square brackets to indicate that it is a non-binding ASSIGN.

Example 7

1> ASSIGN LIBS: Zcad:Libs ADD

adds Zcad:Libs to the list of directories assigned as LIBS:.

Example 8

1> ASSIGN LIBS: Zcad:Libs REMOVE

removes Zcad:Libs from the list of directories assigned as LIBS:.

For more examples using ASSIGN, see Chapter 8.

AVAIL

Reports the amount of Chip and Fast memory available.

Format: AVAIL [CHIP | FAST | VIRTUAL | TOTAL] [FLUSH] [SHOW=<BLOCKS|BYTES|SIZE>]

Template: CHIP/S,FAST/S,TOTAL/S,FLUSH/S,VIRTUAL/S,SHOW/K

Location: C:

AVAIL reports the amount of installed memory and how musch of it is available free for use.

The figures in the complete summary are localised.

The SHOW option selects the format in which the figures in the complete summary will be printed. This must be one of BYTE, KILO, or MEGA. "BYTE", which is the default, will display plain figures. "KILO" will display the same information in KB. "MEGA" will display the same information in MB.

By using the CHIP, FAST, VIRTUAL, or TOTAL options, you can have AVAIL display only the number of free bytes of Chip, Fast, Virtual, or total RAM available, instead of the complete summary. This value can be used for comparisons in scripts.

These types are obsolete as of AmigaOS 4.x and the options CHIP, FAST, and VIRTUAL are only kept to ensure compatibility with older scripts.

The FLUSH option is obsolete and does nothing.

Example 1

1> AVAIL
Installed: 536.870.912
Free:      437.252.096

Example 2

1> AVAIL TOTAL
437252096

Example 3

1> AVAIL SHOW=MEGA
Installed: 512,000 M
Free:      416,104 M

BREAK

Sets attention flags in the specified process.

Format: BREAK <process> [NAME <program name or pattern>] [ALL | C | D | E | F]

Template: PROCESS/N,NAME/K,ALL/S,C/S,D/S,E/S,F/S

Location: C:

BREAK sets the specified attention flags in the <process> indicated. C sets the Ctrl+C flag, D sets the Ctrl+D flag, and so on. ALL sets all the flags from Ctrl+C to Ctrl+F. By default, AmigaDOS only sets the Ctrl+C flag.

Ctrl+C is used as the default for sending a BREAK signal to halt a process. A process that has been aborted this way will display ***BREAK in the Shell window. Ctrl+D is used to halt execution of a script file. Ctrl+E is used to exit Commodity Exchange programs. Ctrl+F is not currently used.

A process can be signalled by giving a name or a wildcard pattern. The name will be compared against the program's name (including its full path, if available) and the program name (excluding the path), if the first test did not produce a match.

See also: STATUS

Example 1

1> BREAK 7

sets the Ctrl+C attention flag of process 7. This is identical to selecting process 7 and pressing Ctrl+C.

Example 2

1> BREAK 5 D

sets the Ctrl+D attention flag of process 5.

Example 3

1> BREAK NAME "DIR#?"

sets the Ctrl+C attention flag of all processes whose name begin with the letters "DIR"; this would include the "DIR" program, for example.

BUILDMAPTABLE

Creates a binary mapping table to Unicode for diskfont.library from ASCII mapping table.

Format: BUILDMAPTABLE <ASCII mapping table> [CHARSET]

Template: UNICODEMAPTABLE/A,CHARSET/K

Location: SDK:C

CD

Sets or displays the current directory.

Format: CD [<dir | pattern>]

Template: DIR

Location: Internal

CD with no arguments displays the name of the current directory. When a valid directory name is given, CD makes the named directory the current directory.

You must specify a complete path to the directory since CD does not search through the disk for it. If CD cannot find the specified directory in the current directory or in the given path, a Can't find <directory> message is displayed.

To move up a level in the filing hierarchy to the parent directory of the current directory, enter CD followed by a space and a single slash (/). You can move to another directory in the parent at the same time by including its name after the slash. If the current directory is a root directory, CD / has no effect. Use multiple slashes with no spaces between them to refer to additional higher levels.

To move directly to the root directory of the current device, use CD followed by a space and a colon; for example, CD :

AmigaDOS supports an implied CD so that the CD command itself can often be left out. Enter the directory name, path, colon, or slashes at the prompt.

CD also supports pattern matching. When a directory matching the specified pattern is found, it becomes the current directory. If more than one directory matches the given pattern, an error message is displayed. You cannot use pattern matching with implied CD. For more information an pattern matching, see Chapter 3.

Example 1

1> CD DF1:Work

sets the current directory to the Work directory on the disk in drive DF1:.

Example 2

1> CD SYS:Com/Basic

makes the subdirectory Basic in the Com directory the current directory.

Example 3

1> //

using the implied CD, moves up two levels in the directory structure.

Example 4

1> CD SYS:Li#?

uses the #? pattern to match with the LIBS: directory.

For more examples using the CD command, see Chapter 8.

CHANGETASKPRI

Changes the priority of a currently running process.

Format: CHANGETASKPRI <priority> [<process>] [NAME <program name or pattern>]

Template: PRI=PRIORITY/A/N,PROCESS/K/N,NAME/K

Location: C:

Since the Amiga is multitasking, it uses priority numbers to determine the order in which current tasks should be serviced. Normally, most tasks have a priority of 0, and the time and instructions cycles of the CPU are divided equally among them. CHANGETASKPRI changes the priority of the specified Shell process. (If no process is specified, the current Shell process is assumed.) Any started from <process> inherit its priority.

The range of acceptable values for <priority> is the integers from -128 to 127, with higher values yielding a higher priority (a greater proportion of CPU time is allocated). However, do not enter values above +10, or you may disrupt important system tasks. Too low a priority (less than 0) can result in a process taking unreasonably long to execute, priority -128 does not make much sense because at that priority runs the idle.task.

The name of the process whose priority number should be changed can be given, or a wildcard pattern that should match it. The name will be compared against the program's name (including its full path, if available) and the program name (excluding the path), if the first test did not produce a match. If more than one command matches the pattern given, then all these commands will have their priorities changed.

See also: STATUS

Example 1

1> CHANGETASKPRI 4 Process 2

The priority of Process 2 is changed to 4. Any tasks started from this Shell will also have a priority of 4. They will have priority over any other user tasks created without using CHANGETASKPRI (those tasks will have a priority of 0).

Example 2

1> CHANGETASKPRI 4 NAME "DIR"

The priority of the program "DIR" is changed to 4. Note that if there is more than one command to match the name, CHANGETASKPRI will abort with an error message.

CHARSETCONVERT

Converts a text file from one charset into another.

Format: CHARSETCONVERT <from file> <fromcharset> [tofile] [tocharset] [EOL [CR] [LF] [CRLF]]

Template: FROM/A,FROMCHARSET/A,TO,TOCHARSET,EOL/K

Location: C:

CLIP

Reads or writes any clipboard unit.

Format: CLIP [<unit>] [WAIT] [ GET | PUT <string> | COUNT ]

Template: U=UNIT/N/K,W=WAIT/S,G=GET/S,P=PUT=S=SET/S,C=COUNT/S,TEXT

Location: C:

CONFIGURENETINTERFACE

Configure network interface parameters.

Format: CONFIGURENETINTERFACE [QUIET] [TIMEOUT=<n>] INTERFACE

Template: INTERFACE/A,QUIET/S,ADDRESS/K,NETMASK/K,BROADCASTADDR/K,DESTINATION=DESTINATIONADDR/K,METRIC/K/N,MTU/K/N,ALIASADDR/K,DELETEADDR/K,ONLINE/S,OFFLINE/S,UP/S,DOWN/S,DEBUG/K,COMPLETE/K,CONFIGURE/K,LEASE/K,RELEASE=RELEASEADDRESS/S,ID/K,TIMEOUT/K/N,DHCPUNICAST/K

Location: C:

COPY

Copies files or directories.

NOTE: This command description is out of date.

Format: COPY [FROM] {<name | pattern>} [TO] <name> [ALL] [quiet] [BUF | BUFFER=<n>] [CLONE] [DATES] [NOPRO] [COM] [NOREQ]

Template: FROM/M,TO/A,ALL/S,QUIET/S,BUF=BUFFER/K/N,CLONE/S,DATES/S,NOPRO/S,COM/S,NOREQ/S

Location: C:

COPY copies the file or directory specified with the FROM argument to the file or directory specified by the TO argument. You can copy several items at once by giving more than one name/pattern in the FROM argument; they should be separated by spaces. If the FROM argument is a pattern or consists of multiple names, the TO argument must be a directory.

If a TO file name already exists, COPY overwrites the TO file with the FROM file. You can use a pair of double quotation marks ("") to refer to the current directory. When used as the FROM argument, "" copies all the files in the current directory. Do not put any spaces between the double quotation marks.

If the FROM argument is a directory, only the directory's files are copied; its subdirectories are not copied. Use the ALL option to copy the complete directory, including its files, subdirectories, and the subdirectories' files. It is possible to create a directory as you copy if you are copying more than one file. To give the new directory a name, specify the directory name as the last component in the TO argument's path. This can be any name, including the same name as the original if it is a different path.

COPY prints to the screen the name of each file as it is copied. This can be overridden by the QUIET option.

The BUF= option is used to set the number of 512-byte buffers used during the copy. (Default is 128 buffers, 64 KB of RAM.) Limit the number of buffers when copying to RAM:. BUF=0 uses a buffer the same size as the file to be copied.

By default, COPY gives a TO file the timestamp of when the copy was made, rather than that of the original file. Also by default, comments attached to the original FROM file are not copied and the protection bits of the FROM file are copied to the TO file. You can override these defaults using the following:

CLONE	The timestamp, comments, and protection bits of the FROM file are copied to the TO file.
DATES	The timestamp of the FROM file is copied to the TO file.
COM	Any comment attached to the FROM file is copied to the TO file.
NOPRO	The protection bits of the FROM file are not copied to the TO file. The TO file is given standard protection bits or r, w, e, and d.

COPY displays a requester if the COPY cannot continue. When the NOREQ option is given, all requesters are suppressed. Use this in scripts to prevent a COPY failure from stopping the script to wait for a response. With the NOREQ option, the COPY command is aborted and the script continues.

Example 1

1> COPY File1 TO :Work/File2

copies File1 in the current directory to the Work directory in the root of the current device, renaming it File2.

Example 2

1> COPY Chapter#? TO DF1:Backup

copies all the files whose names start with Chapter in the current directory to the Backup directory on the disk in DF1:. The Backup directory is created if it does not already exist.

Example 3

1> COPY Work:Test TO ""

copies the files in the Test directory on Work to the current directory; subdirectories in Test are not copied.

Example 4

1> COPY Work:Test TO DF0:Test ALL

copies all the files and any subdirectories of the Test directory on Work to the Test directory on DF0:. If a Test directory does not already exist on DF0:, COPY creates one.

Example 5

1> COPY DF0: TO DF1: ALL QUIET

copies all files and directories on the disk in DF0: to DF1:, without displaying on the screen any file/directory names as they are copied. (For disks less than half full, this can be faster than DiskCopy.)

For more examples using COPY, see Chapter 8.

COUNTLINES

Counts how many lines a file is made of.

Format: COUNTLINES {<filename>}

Template: NAME/A/M

Location: C:

COUNTLINES counts the number of lines of the file(s) given in argument. If several arguments are given, a sum of all line counts will be returned.

CPU

Adjusts various options of the microprocessor installed in your Amiga. The command also shows the processor and options that are currently enabled.

Format: CPU [CACHE | NONCACHE] [BURST | NOBURST] [DATACAHCE | NODATACACHE] [DATABURST | NODATABURST] [INSTCACHE | NOINSTCACHE] [INSTBURST | NOINSTBURST] [FASTROM | NOFASTROM] [TRAP | NOTRAP] [COPYBACK | NOCOPYBACK] [EXTERNALCACHE | NOEXTERNALCACHE] [NOMMUTEST] [CHECK 68010 | 68020 | 68030 | 68040 | 68881 | 68882 | 68851 | MMU | FPU]

Template: CACHES/S,BURST/S,NOCACHE/S,NOBURST/",DATACACHE/S,NODATACHE/S,DATABURST/S,NODATABURST/S,INSTCACHE/S,NOINSTCACHE/S,INSTBURST/S,NOINSTBURST/S,COPYBACK/S,NOCOPYBACK/S,EXTERNALCACHE/S,NOEXTERNALCACHE/S,FASTROM/S,NOFASTROM/S,TRAP/S,NOTRAP/S,NOMMUTEST/S,CHECK/K

Location: C:

Many options only work with certain members of the 680x0 processor family. The 68020 has a special type of memory known as instruction cache. When instruction cache is used, instructions are executed more quickly. The 68030 and 68040 have two types of cache memory: instruction and data.

If mutually exclusive options are specified, the safest option is used. Availability of the following options depends on the type of microprocessor present.

CACHE	Turns on all caches.
NOCACHE	Turns off all caches.
BURST	Turns on burst mode for both data and instructions.
NOBURST	Turns off burst mode for data and instructions.
DATACACHE	Turns on data cache.
NODATACACHE	Turns off data cache.
DATABURST	Turns on burst mode for data.
NODATABURST	Turns off burst mode for data.
INSTCACHE	Turns on instruction cache.
NOINSTCACHE	Turns off instruction cache.
INSTBURST	Turns on burst mode for instructions.
NOINSTBURST	Turns off burst mode for instructions.
FASTROM	With a processor having a supported MMU, copies the system ROM into 32-bit RAM, making access to operating system functions significantly faster. CPU then write-protects the RAM area so that the data cannot be changed.
NOFASTROM	Turns off FASTROM.
TRAP	This option is for developers only.
NOTRAP	This option is for developers only.
COPYBACK	Turns on 68040 copyback cache.
NOCOPYBACK	Turns off 68040 copyback cache.
EXTERNALCACHE	Turns on external cache.
NOEXTERNALCACHE	Turns off external cache.
NOMMUTEST	Allows the MMU settings to be changed without checking to see if an MMU is currently in use.

The CHECK option, when given with a keyword (68010, 68020, 68030, 68040, 68881, 68882, or 68851, MMU, FPU) checks for the presence of the processor indicated by the keyword.

Examples

1> CPU
System: 68030 68881 (INST: Cache Burst) (DATA: Cache NoBurst)

1> CPU NODATACACHE FASTROM
System: 68030 68881 FastRom (INST: Cache Burst)
(DATA: NoCache NoBurst)

1> CPU NOBURST DATACACHE NOINSTCACHE
System: 68030 68881 (INST: NoCache NoBurst) (DATA: Cache NoBurst)

CUT

Cuts some characters or words from a string.

Format: CUT <string> [ CHAR <range> | WORD <range> [SEPARATOR] ]

Template: STRING/A,C=CHAR/K,W=WORD/K,S=SEPARATOR

Location: C:

DATE

Displays or sets the system date and/or time.

NOTE: This command description is out of date.

Format: DATE [<day>] [<date>] [] [TO | VER <filename>]

Template: DAY,DATE,TIME,TO=VER/K

Location: C:

DATE with no argument displays the currently set system time and date, including the day of the week. Time is displayed using a 24-hour clock.

DATE <date> sets only the date. The format for entry and display of <date> is DD-MMM-YY (day-month-year). The hyphens between the arguments are required. A leading zero in the date is not necessary. The number or the first three letters of the month (in English) must be used, as well as the last two digits of the year.

If the date is already set, you can reset it by specifying a day name. You can also use tomorrow or yesterday as the <day> argument. You cannot specify a day name to change the date to more than seven days into the future.

DATE sets the time. The format for entry and display of is HH:MM:SS (hours:minutes:seconds). Seconds is optional.

If your Amiga does not have a battery backed-up hardware clock and you do not set the date, when the system boots it sets the date to the date of the most recently created file on the boot disk.

If you specify the TO or VER option, followed by a file name, the output of the DATE command is sent to that file, overwriting any existing contents.

Adjustments made with DATE only change the software clock and do not survive powering off the system. To set the battery backed-up hardware clock from the Shell, you must set the date and use SETCLOCK SAVE.

Although DATE accepts and displays the date and time in a single format, programs such as Clock display the date and time according to your Locale country setting.

Example 1

1> DATE
6-Sep-92

Example 2

1> DATE 6-sep-92

sets the date to September 6, 1992. The time is not reset.

Example 3

1> DATE tomorrow

resets the date to one day ahead.

Example 4

1> DATE TO Fred

sends the current date to the file Fred.

Example 5

1> DATE 23:00

sets the current time to 11:00 p.m.

Example 6

1> DATE 1-jan-02

sets the date to January 1st, 2002. The earliest date you can set is January 1, 1978.

DELETE

Deletes files or directories.

NOTE: This command description is out of date.

Format: DELETE {<name | pattern>} [ALL] [QUIET] [FORCE]

Template: FILE/M/A,ALL/S,QUIET/S,FORCE/S

Location: C:

DELETE attempts to erase the specified items. You can delete multiple items at the same time by listing them individually or by using a wildcard to delete a specific set of files matching a pattern. The pattern can specify directory levels, as well as names. To abort a multiple-item DELETE, press Ctrl+C. A multiple-item DELETE aborts if and when it finds something that cannot be removed; for example, a file is delete-protected or in use. A pattern matching DELETE removes everything it can and lists the items that it did not delete, if any.

Note
AmigaDOS does not request confirmation of deletions. Do not use pattern matching to delete things if you are not familiar with the procedure; deleted items cannot be recovered, unless you have an up-to-date backup of the items deleted.

An error message warns you that you cannot delete directories that still contain files. Override this using the ALL option. DELETE ALL deletes the named directory, its subdirectories, and all files.

File names are displayed on the screen as they are deleted. To suppress the screen output, use the QUIET option.

If the d (deletable) protection bit of a file or directory has been cleared, that item cannot be deleted unless the FORCE option is used.

Example 1

1> DELETE Old-file

deletes the file named Old-file in the current directory.

Example 2

1> DELETE Work/Prog1 Work/Prog2 Work

deletes the files Prog1 and Prog2 in the Work directory and then deletes the Work directory if it contains no other files.

Example 3

1> DELETE T#?/#?(1|2)

deletes all the files that end in 1 or 2 in directories that start with T.

Example 4

1> DELETE DF1:#? ALL FORCE

deletes all the files on DF1:, even those set as not deletable.

See also: PROTECT. For more examples using DELETE, see Chapter 8.

DELETENETROUTE

Deletes a message routing path currently in use.

Format: DELETENETROUTE [QUIET] [DESTINATION=<ip>] [DEFAULTGATEWAY=<ip>]

Template: QUIET/S,DST=DESTINATION/K,DEFAULT=DEFAULTGATEWAY/K

Location: C:

DIR

Displays a sorted list of the files in a directory.

NOTE: This command description is out of date.

Format: DIR [<dir | pattern>] [OPT A | I | AI | D | F] [ALL] [DIRS] [FILES] [INTER]

Template: DIR,OPT/K,ALL/S,DIRS/S,FILES/S,INTER/S

Location: C:

DIR displays the file and directory names contained in the specified directory or the current directory. Directories are listed first, followed by an alphabetical list of the files in two columns. Pressing Ctrl+C aborts a directory listing.

The options are:

ALL	Displays all subdirectories and their files.
DIRS	Displays only directories.
FILES	Displays only files.
INTER	Enters an interactive listing mode.

The ALL, DIRS, FILES, and INTER keywords supersede the OPT A, D, F, and I options, respectively. The older keywords are retained for compatibility with earlier versions of AmigaDOS. Do not use OPT with the full keywords - ALL, DIRS, FILES, or INTER.

Interactive listing mode stops after each name to display a question mark at which you can enter commands. The acceptable responses are shown below:

Press Return	Displays the next name on the list.
E	Enters a directory; the files in that directory are displayed.
B	Goes back one directory level.
DEL or DELETE	Deletes a file or empty directory. DEL does not refer to the Del key; enter the letters D, E, and L.
T	Types the contents of a file.
C or COMMAND	Allows you to enter additional AmigaDOS commands.
Q	Quits interactive editing.
?	Displays a list of the available interactive-mode commands.

The COMMAND option allows almost any AmigaDOS command to be executed during the interactive directory list. To issue a command, enter C (or COMMAND) at the question mark prompt. DIR asks you for the command. Enter the desired command, then press Return. The command is executed and DIR continues. You can also combine the C and the command on one line by putting the command in quotation marks following the C.

For example,

? C "type prefs.info hex"

is equivalent to pressing Q to exit interactive listing mode and return to a regular Shell prompt, then entering:

1> TYPE Prefs.info HEX

to display the Prefs.info file on the screen in hexadecimal format.

Formatting a disk from the DIR interactive mode is not recommended since the format takes place immediately, without any confirmation requesters appearing. Do not start another interactive DIR from interactive mode since it results in garbled output.

Example 1

1> DIR Workbench:

displays a list of the directories and files on the Workbench disk.

Example 2

1> DIR MyDisk:#?.memo

displays all the directories and files on MyDisk that end in .memo.

Example 3

1> DIR Extras: ALL

displays the complete contents of the Extras drawer: all directories, all subdirectories, and all files, including those in the subdirectories.

Example 4

1> DIR Workbench: DIRS

displays only the directories on Workbench.

Example 5

1> DIR Workbench: INTER

begins an interactive list of the contents of the Workbench disk.

For more examples using DIR, see Chapter 8.

DISKCHANGE

Informs the Amiga that you have changed a disk in a disk drive.

Format: DISKCHANGE <device>

Template: DRIVE/A

Location: C:

You must use the DISKCHANGE command to inform the system when you change disks or cartridges in 5.25 inch floppy disk drives or removable media drives without automatic diskchange hardware.

Example

If a requester asks you to insert a new disk into your 5.25 inch drive, known as DF2:, you must insert the disk and then enter:

1> DISKCHANGE DF2:

AmigaDOS then recognizes the new disk and you can proceed.

DISMOUNT

Shuts down a file system device and all its associated volumes.

Format: DISMOUNT <device> [SOFT] [FORCE]

Template: DEVICE/A,SOFT/S,FORCE/S

Location: C:

ECHO

Displays a string.

Format: ECHO [<string>] [NOLINE] [FIRST <n>] [LEN <n>] [TO <filename>]

Template: /M,LINE/S,FIRST/K/N,LEN/K/N,TO/K

Location: Internal

ECHO writes the specified string to the current output window or device. By default the string is sent to the screen, but if you use the TO option, you can send the string to any specified device or file.

When the NOLINE option is specified, ECHO does not automatically move the cursor to the next line after printing the string.

The FIRST and LEN options allow the echoing of a substring. FIRST <n> indicate the character position from which to begin the echo; LEN <n> indicates the number of characters of the substring to echo, beginning with the FIRST character. If the FIRST option is omitted and only the LEN keyword is given, the substring printed consists of the rightmost <n> characters of the main string. For example, if your string is 20 characters long and you specify LEN 4, the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th characters of the string are echoed.

Examples

1> ECHO "hello out there!"

hello out there!

1> ECHO "hello out there!" NOLINE FIRST 0 LEN 5 hello1>

For further examples using the ECHO command, see Chapter 8.

ED

Edits text files (a screen editor).

Format: ED [FROM] <filename> [Size <n>] [WITH <filename>] [WINDOW <window specification>] [TABS <n>] [WIDTH | COLS <n>] [HEIGHT | ROWS <n>]

Template: FROM/A,SIZE/N,WITH/K,WINDOW/K,TABS/N,WIDTH=COLS/N,HEIGHT=ROWS/N

Location: C:

See ED for more information. See Chapter 8 for an example using ED.

EDIT

Edits text files by processing the source file sequentially (a line editor).

Format: EDIT [FROM] <filename> [[TO <filename>] [WITH <filename>] [VER <filename>] [OPT P <lines> | W <chars> | P<lines>W<chars>] [WIDTH <chars>] [PREVIOUS <lines>]

Template: FROM/A,TO,WITH/K,VER/K,OPT/K,WIDTH/N,PREVIOUS/N

Location: C:

See EDIT for more information.

ELSE

Specifies an alternative for an IF statement in a script file.

Format: ELSE

Template: (none)

Location: Internal

ELSE must be used in conjunction with the IF command. ELSE is used in an IF block of a script to specify an alternative action if the IF condition is not true. If the IF condition is not true, execution of the script jumps from the IF line to the line after ELSE; all intervening commands are skipped. If the IF condition is true, the commands immediately following the IF statement are executed up to the ELSE. Then, execution skips to the ENDIF statement that concludes the IF block.

Example

Assume a script, called Display, contains the following block:

IF exists picfile
   MultiView picfile
ELSE
   ECHO "picfile is not in this directory"
ENDIF

If picfile can be found in the current directory, the MultiView program is executed and picfile is displayed on the screen.

If picfile cannot be found in the current directory, the script skips to the ECHO command. The following message is displayed in the Shell window:

picfile is not in this directory

ENDCLI

Ends a Shell process.

Format: ENDCLI

Template: (none)

Location: Internal

ENDCLI ends a Shell process.

ENDIF

Terminates an IF block in a script file.

Format: ENDIF

Template: (none)

Location: Internal

ENDIF must be used when an IF commands is used. ENDIF is used in scripts at the end of an IF block. If the IF condition is not true or if the true-condition commands are executed and an ELSE is encountered, the execution of the script skips to the next ENDIF command. Every IF statement must be terminated by an ENDIF.

The ENDIF applies to the most recent IF or ELSE command.

See also: IF, ELSE. For examples using the ENDIF command, see Chapter 8.

ENDSHELL

Ends a Shell process.

Format: ENDSHELL

Template: (none)

Location: Internal

ENDSHELL ends a Shell process and closes the Shell window.

The Shell process can also be ended by ENDCLI, by clicking on the close gadget, or by pressing CTRL+\.

Use ENDSHELL only when the Workbench or another Shell is running. If you quit the Workbench and you close your only Shell, you cannot communicate with the Amiga without rebooting.

The Shell window cannot close if any process that were launched from the Shell and not detached are still running. Even though the window stays open, the Shell does not accept new input. You must terminate those processes before the window closes. For example, if you opened an editor from the Shell, the Shell window does not close until you exit the editor.

For examples using the ENDSHELL command, see Chapter 8.

ENDSKIP

Terminates a SKIP block in a script file.

Format: ENDSKIP

Template: (none)

Location: Internal

ENDSKIP is used in scripts to terminate the execution of a SKIP block. A SKIP block allows you to jump over intervening commands if a certain condition is met. When an ENDSKIP is encountered, execution of the script resumes at the line following the ENDSKIP. The condition flag is set to 5 (WARN).

EVAL

Evaluates integer or Boolean expressions.

Format: EVAL <value1> {[<operation>] [<value2>]} [TO <file>] [LFORMAT=<string>]

Template: VALUE1/A,OP,VALUE2/M,TO/K,LFORMAT/K

Location: C:

EVAL is used to evaluate and print the answer of an integer expression. The fractional portion of input values and final results, if any, is truncated (cut off). If a non-integer is given as an input value, evaluation stops at the decimal point.

<Value1> and <value2> can be decimal (the default), hexadecimal, or octal numbers. Hexadecimal numbers are indicated by either a leading Ox or #x. Octal numbers are indicated by either a leading 0 or a leading #. Alphabetical characters are indicated by a leading single quotation mark (`) and are evaluated as their ASCII equivalent.

The LFORMAT keyword specifies the formatting string used to print the answer. You can use %X (hexadecimal), %O (octal), %N (decimal), or %C (character). The %X and %O options require a number of digits using the LFORMAT keyword, you can specify to print a new line by including *N in your string.

The supported operations and their corresponding symbols are shown in the following table.

addition	+
subtraction	-
multiplication	*
division	/
modulo	mod, M, m, or %
bitwise AND	&
bitwise OR	\|
bitwise NOT	~
left shift	Ish, L, or l
right shift	rsh, R, or r
negation	-
exclusive OR	xor, X, or x
bitwise equivalence	eqv, E, or e

EVAL can be used in scripts as a counter for loops. In that case, use the TO option to send the output of EVAL to a file.

Parentheses can be used in the expressions.

Example 1

1> EVAL 64 / 8 + 2
10

Example 2

1> EVAL 0x5f / 010 LFORMAT="The answer is %X4*N"
The answer is 000B
1>

This divides hexadecimal 5f (95) by octal 10 (8), yielding 000B, the integer portion of the decimal answer 11.875. (The 1> prompt appears immediately after the 000B if *N is not specified in the LFORMAT string.)

For more examples using the EVAL command, see Chapter 8.

EXECUTE

Executes a script with optional argument substitution.

Format: EXECUTE <script> [{<arguments>}]

Template: FILE/A

Location: C:

EXECUTE is used to run scripts of AmigaDOS commands. The lines in the script are executed as if they had been entered at a Shell prompt. If the s protection bit of a file is set and the file is in the search path, enter only the file name; the EXECUTE command is not needed.

You can use parameter substitution in scripts by including special keywords in the script. When these keywords are used, you can pass variables to the script by including the variable in the EXECUTE command line. Before the script is executed, AmigaDOS checks the parameter names in the script against any arguments given on the command line. If any match, AmigaDOS substitutes the values specified on the command line for the parameter name in the script. You can also specify default values for AmigaDOS to use if no variables are given. If you have not specified a variable and there is no default specified in the script, then the value of the parameter is empty (no substitution is made).

The allowable keywords for parameter substitution are explained in Chapter 5. Each keyword command line must be prefaced with a dot character (.).

See also: IF, SKIP, FAILAT, LAB, ECHO, RUN, QUIT. For examples using the EXECUTE command, see Chapter 8.

FAILAT

Instructs a command sequence not to fail unless a given error condition is returned.

Format: FAILAT [<n>]

Template: RCLIM/N

Location: Internal

Commands indicate that they have failed by setting a nonzero return code. The return code, normally 5, 10, or 20, indicates the severity of the error. A return code greater than or equal to a certain limit, the fail limit, terminates a sequence of non-interactive commands (commands specified after RUN or in a script).

Use the FAILAT command to alter the fail limit RCLIM (Return Code Limit) from its initial value of 10. If you increase the limit, you indicate that certain classes of error should not be regarded as fatal and that execution of subsequent commands can proceed after the error. The argument must be a positive number. The fail limit is reset to the initial value of 10 on exit from the command sequence.

If the argument is omitted, the current fail limit is displayed.

Example

Assume a script contains the following lines:

COPY DF0:MyFile to RAM:
ECHO "MyFile being copied."

If MyFile cannot be found, the scripts is aborted and the following message appears in the Shell window:

COPY: object not found
COPY failed returncode 20:

However, if you changed the return code limit to higher than 20, the script continues even if the COPY command fails. For example, if you changed the script to read:

FAILAT 21
COPY DF0:MyFile to RAM:
ECHO "MyFile being copied."

Even if MyFile cannot be found, the script continues. The following message appears in the Shell window:

COPY: object not found
MyFile being copied.

FAULT

Prints the messages for the specified error numbers.

Format: FAULT {<n>}

Template: /N/M

Location: Internal

FAULT prints the messages corresponding to the error numbers supplied. As many error numbers, separated by spaces, as you want can be specified to print at the same time.

Example

If you receive the error message:

Error when opening DF1:TestFile 205

and need more information, enter:

1> FAULT 205
FAULT 205: object not found

This tells you that the error occurred because TestFile could not be found on DF1:.

A complete list of error messages appears in Appendix A.

FDTOOL

Control and examine the current state of the a1floppy device.

Format: FDTOOL [U | UNIT <unit number>] [D | DEBUG <debug level>] [A | AUTO] [M | MANUAL] [C | CHECKNOW] [I | INFO] [V | VERS | VERSION]

Template: U=UNIT/K/N,D=DEBUG/K/N,A=AUTO/S,M=MANUAL/S,C=CHECKNOW/S,I=INFO/S,V=VERS=VERSION/S

Location: C:

FILENOTE

Attaches a comment to a file.

Format: FILENOTE [FILE] <file | pattern> [COMMENT <comment>] [ALL] [QUIET]

Template: FILE/A,COMMENT,ALL/S,QUIET/S

Location: C:

FILENOTE attaches an optional comment of up to 79 characters to the specified file or to all files matching the given pattern.

If the <comment> includes spaces, it must be enclosed in double quotation marks. To include double quotation marks in a filenote, each literal quotation mark must be immediately preceded by an asterisk (*) and the entire comment must be enclosed in quotation marks, regardless of whether the commend contains any spaces.

If the <comment> argument is omitted, any existing filenote is deleted from the named file.

Creating a comment with FILENOTE is the same as entering a comment into the Comment gadget of an icon's Information window. Changes made with FILENOTE are reflected in the Information window, and vice versa.

Use the LIST command to view comments made with FILENOTE. If a file has comments, LIST displays them below the file name.

When a existing file is copied to (specified as the TO argument of a COPY command), it is overwritten, but its original comment is retained. Any comment attached to a FROM file is not copied unless the CLONE or COM option of COPY is specified.

If the ALL option is given, FILENOTE adds the <comment> to all the files and subdirectories matching the pattern entered. If the QUIET options is given, screen output is suppressed.

Example 1

1> FILENOTE Sonata "allegro non troppo"

attaches the filenote allegro non troppo to the Sonata file.

Example 2

1> FILENOTE Toccata "*"presto*""

attaches the filenote "presto" to the Toccata file.

FILESIZE

Collects information on the size of files stored on a disk.

Format: FILESIZE [{<dir|file|pattern|device>}] [FORM <file name>] [ALL]

Template: FILES/M,FROM/K,ALL/S,REPORT/S,FORMAT/K

Location: C:

FLASHTOOL

Reading, writing, and erasing for EEPROM memory chips.

Format: FLASHTOOL <command> [<command arguments>]

Template: COMMAND,ARGS/M

Location: C:

FLASHTOOL is used for reading, erasing, and writing to EEPROM non-volatile memory chips. To utilize FLASHTOOL, an IDE Flasher must be installed in the primary or secondary IDE port.

FLASHTOOL provides the following commands:

Name	Command	Description
ISPRESENT	-p <device name> <unit>	Check if a flasher device is present.
TYPE	-t <device name> <unit>	Return EEPROM type.
ERASE	-e <device name> <unit>	Erase an EEPROM.
ISBLANK	-b <device name> <unit>	Check if EEPROM is empty.
SAVE	-s <device name> <unit> <file name>	Save EEPROM content to a file. The saved file is in binary (raw) format.
WRITE	-w <device name> <unit> <file name>	Write a binary (raw) file to EEPROM.
VERIFY	-c <device name> <unit> <file name>	Check if EEPROM content matches the file's content. The file must be in binary (raw) form.
LISTSUPPORTED	-l	List supported EEPROMs.
VERSION	-v	Print FLASHTOOL version.

The <device name> argument tells which Amiga device is controlling the IDE Flasher, and the <unit> argument tells which device is used.

FLASHTOOL supports the following EEPROMs:

ATMEL AT29C512 512 Kbit (64K x 8-bit)
ATMEL AT29C010A 1 Mbit (128K x 8-bit)
ATMEL AT29C020 2 Mbit (256K x 8-bit)
ATMEL AT29C040 4 Mbit (512K x 8-bit)
ATMEL AT29C040A 4 Mbit (512K x 8-bit)
ATMEL AT49F004N 4 Mbit (512K x 8-bit)
ATMEL AT49F004T 4 Mbit (512K x 8-bit)
ATMEL AT49F010 1 Mbit (128K x 8-bit)
ATMEL AT49F020 2 Mbit (256K x 8-bit)
AMD AM29F010 1 Mbit (128K x 8-bit)
AMD AM29F010A 1 Mbit (128K x 8-bit)
AMD AM29F040B 4 Mbit (512K x 8-bit)
AMD AM29F002 2 Mbit (256K x 8-bit) Top Boot Block
AMD AM29F002 2 Mbit (256K x 8-bit) Bottom Boot Block
AMD AM29F004 4 Mbit (512K x 8-bit) Top Boot Block
AMD AM29F004 4 Mbit (512K x 8-bit) Bottom Boot Block
MOSEL VITELIC V29C51000T 512 Kbit (64K x 8-bit)
MOSEL VITELIC V29C51000B 512 Kbit (64K x 8-bit)
MOSEL VITELIC V29C51001T 1 Mbit (128K x 8-bit)
MOSEL VITELIC V29C51001B 1 Mbit (128K x 8-bit)
MOSEL VITELIC V29C51002T 2 Mbit (256K x 8-bit)
MOSEL VITELIC V29C51002B 2 Mbit (256K x 8-bit)
MOSEL VITELIC V29C51004T 4 Mbit (512K x 8-bit)
MOSEL VITELIC V29C51004B 4 Mbit (512K x 8-bit)
HYUNDAI HY29F002T 2 Mbit (256K x 8-bit)
HYUNDAI HY29F002B 2 Mbit (256K x 8-bit)
HYUNDAI HY29F040A 4 Mbit (512K x 8-bit)
SST SST29EE512 512 Kbit (64K x 8-bit)
SST SST29EE010 1 Mbit (128K x 8-bit)
SST SST29EE020 2 Mbit (256K x 8-bit)
SST SST39SF512 512Kbit (64K x 8-bit)
SST SST39SF010(A) 1 Mbit (128K x 8-bit)
SST SST39SF020A 2 Mbit (256K x 8-bit)
SST SST39SF040 4 Mbit (512K x 8-bit)
ST M29F010B 1 Mbit (128K x 8-bit)
ST M29F002T 1 Mbit (256K x 8-bit)
ST M29F002B 1 Mbit (256K x 8-bit)
ST M29F040B 4 Mbit (512K x 8-bit)
ST M29F040 4 Mbit (512K x 8-bit)
WINBOND W29C512A 512 Kbit (64K x 8-bit)
WINBOND W29C010M 1 Mbit (128K x 8-bit)
WINBOND W29C020 2 Mbit (256K x 8-bit)
WINBOND W29C040 4 Mbit (512K x 8-bit)
WINBOND W49C020 2 Mbit (256K x 8-bit)
WINBOND W49F002U 2 Mbit (256K x 8-bit)
WINBOND W49F002U mod 2 Mbit (256K x 8-bit)
MACRONIX MX29F040 4 Mbit (512K x 8-bit)
AMIC A29010 1 Mbit (128K x 8-bit)
AMIC A29040A 4 Mbit (512K x 8-bit)
AMIC A29001T 1 Mbit (128K x 8-bit)
AMIC A29001B 1 Mbit (128K x 8-bit)
AMIC A29002T 2 Mbit (256K x 8-bit)
AMIC A29002B 2 Mbit (256K x 8-bit)
Texas Instruments TMS29F040 4 Mbit (512K x 8-bit)
IMT IM29F001T 1 Mbit (128K x 8-bit)
IMT IM29F001B 1 Mbit (128K x 8-bit)
IMT IM29F002T 2 Mbit (256K x 8-bit)
IMT IM29F002B 2 Mbit (256K x 8-bit)
IMT IM29F004T 4 Mbit (512K x 8-bit)
IMT IM29F004B 4 Mbit (512K x 8-bit)
Fujitsu MBM29F002TC 2 Mbit (256K x 8-bit)
Fujitsu MBM29F002BC 2 Mbit (256K x 8-bit)
Fujitsu MBM29F004TC 4 Mbit (512K x 8-bit)
Fujitsu MBM29F004BC 4 Mbit (512K x 8-bit)
Fujitsu MBM29F040C 4 Mbit (512K x 8-bit)

Example 1

Check if an IDE Flasher device is installed:

 1> FLASHTOOL -p a1ide.device 0

Example 2

Erase an EEPROM:

 1> FLASHTOOL -e a1ide.device 0

Example 3

Write file "uboot.bin" to EEPROM:

 1> FLASHTOOL -w a1ide.device 0 uboot.bin

Example 4

Verify the written data:

 1> FLASHTOOL -c a1ide.device 0 uboot.bin

Example 5

Save EEPROM content to file "backup.bin":

 1> FLASHTOOL -s a1ide.device 0 backup.bin

FTP

ARPANET file transfer program.

Format: FTP [-v|VERBOSE] [-d|DEBUG] [-t|TRACE] [-i|NOPROMPT] [-n|NOAUTOLOGIN] [-g|NOGLOBBING] [<host>] [<n>]

Template: -v=VERBOSE/S,-d=DEBUG/S,-t=TRACE/S,-i=NOPROMPT/S,-n=NOAUTOLOGIN/S,-g=NOGLOBBING/S,HOST,PORT/N

Location: C:

GET

Gets the value of a local variable.

Format: GET <name>

Template: NAME/A

Location: Internal

GET is used to retrieve and display the value of a local environment variable. The value is displayed in the current window.

Local environment variables are only recognized by the Shell in which they are created or by any Shells created from a NEWSHELL command executed in the original Shell. If you open an additional Shell by opening the Shell icon or by using the Execute Command menu item, previously created local environment variables are not available.

Example

1> GET editor
Extras:Tools/MEmacs

GETENV

Gets the value of a global variable.

Format: GETENV <name>

Template: NAME/A

Location: Internal

GETENV is used to retrieve and display the value of a global environment variable. The value is displayed in the current window. Global variables are stored in ENV: and are recognized by all Shells.

Example

1> GETENV editor
Extras:Tools/MEmacs

GETNETSTATUS

Queries whether the network is operational.

GROUP

Changes the access rights of a file or directory.

HELP

Text based help command.

HI

Halts all ARexx programs.

HISTORY

Display, recall, or store the command line history.

ICONX

Note
ICONX is used only as a default tool in a project icon and cannot be used as a Shell command.

Allows execution of a script file of AmigaDOS commands from an icon.

Format: ICONX

Template: (none)

Location: C:

To use ICONX, create or copy a project icon for the script. Open the icon's Information window and change the Default Tool of the icon to C:ICONX and select Save to store the changed .info file. The script can then be executed by double-clicking on the icon.

When the icon is opened, ICONX changes the current directory to the directory containing the project icon before executing the script. A console window can be opened on the Workbench screen if the script produces output.

Several Tool Types can be specified in the script icon. The WINDOW Tool Type provides an alternate window specification for the input/output window. By default, the window's specification is:

WINDOW=CON:0/50//80/IconX/AUTO/WAIT/CLOSE

The AUTO option opens a window only if there is output created by the script. If a window opens, the WAIT option forces it to remain open after the script terminates until you specifically close it. The CLOSE option gives the window a close gadget.

The WAIT Tool Type (not to be confused with the WAIT option of the WINDOW Tool Type) specifies the number of seconds the input/output window should remain open after the script terminates. If you use this option the default input/output window cannot be closed before the WAIT period has expired. There is also a DELAY Tool Type that works in very similar way, except that its parameter is in 1/50th of a second, instead of in seconds.

The STACK Tool Type specifies the number of bytes to use for stack during script execution. If this Tool Type is not provided, the default 4096 bytes is used.

Finally, the USERSHELL Tool Type runs the script file using the current Use Shell instead of the normal ROM Shell. You must specify USERSHELL=YES. User Shells are third party shells that you can purchase and install in your system to replace the standard Amiga Shell environment that comes with the operating system.

Extended selection passes files that have icons to the script. Their file names appear to the script as keywords. To use this facility, the .KEY keyword must appear at the start of the script. In this case, the AmigaDOS EXECUTE command is used to execute the script file.

See also: EXECUTE. For examples using the ICONX command, see Chapter 8.

IF

Evaluates conditional operations in script files.

Format: IF [NOT] [WARN | ERROR | FAIL] [<string> EQ| GT | GE <string>] [VAL] [EXISTS <filename>]

Template: NOT/S,WARN/S,ERROR/S,FAIL/S,EQ/K,GT/K,GE/K,VAL/S,EXISTS/K

Location: Internal

In a script file, IF, when its conditional is true, carries out all the subsequent commands until an ENDIF or ELSE command is found. IF must be used in conjunction with ENDIF, however, ELSE is optional. When the conditional is not true, execution skips directly to the ENDIF or to an ELSE. The conditions and commands in IF and ELSE blocks can span more than one line before their corresponding ENDIFs.

Nested Ifs jump to the matching ENDIF.

The additional keywords are as follows:

NOT	Reverses the interpretation of the result.
WARN	True if previous return code is greater than or equal to 5.
ERROR	True if previous return codes is greater than or equal to 10; only available if FAILAT is set to greater than 10.
FAIL	True if previous return code is greater than or equal to 20; only available if FAILAT is set to greater than 20.
<a> GT	True if the test of a is greater than the text of b (disregarding case). Use NOT GT for less than.
<a> GE	True if the text of a is greater than or equal to the text of b (disregarding case). Use NOT GE for less than or equal to.
<a> EQ	True if the text of a and b is identical (disregarding case).
VAL	Specifies a numeric comparison.
EXISTS <file>	True if the file exists.

If more than one of the three condition-flag keywords (WARN, ERROR, FAIL) are given, the one with the lowest value is used.

You can use local or global variables with IF by prefacing the variable name with a $ character.

Example 1

IF EXISTS Work/Prog
   TYPE Work/Prog HEX
ELSE
   ECHO "It's not here"
ENDIF

AmigaDOS displays the file Work/Prog if it exists in the current directory. Otherwise, AmigaDOS displays the message It's not here and continues after the ENDIF.

Example 2

IF ERROR
   SKIP errlab
ENDIF
ECHO "No error"
LAB errlab

If the previous command produces a return code greater than or equal to 10, AmigaDOS skips over the ECHO command to the errlab label.

See also: EXECUTE, FAILAT, LAB, QUIET, SKIP. For more examples using the IF command, see Chapter 8.

INFO

Gives information about mounted devices.

Format: INFO [<device>]

Template: DEVICE

Location: C:

INFO displays a line of information about each mounted storage device, including floppy disk drive and hard disk partitions. Listed are the unit name, maximum size of the disk, the used and free space in blocks, the percentage of the disk that is full, the number of soft disk errors that have occurred, the status of the disk, and the name of the disk.

With the <device> argument, INFO provides information on the specified device or volume only.

Example

1>INFO

Unit Size Used Free Full Errs Status Name
DF0: 879K 1738 20 98% 0 Read Only Workbench
DF1: 879K 418 1140 24% 0 Read/Write Text-6

Volumes available:
Workbench [Mounted]
Text-6 [Mounted]

INSTALL

Writes or inspects a boot blocks on a formatted floppy disk or PCMCIA card, specifying whether it should be bootable.

Format: INSTALL [DRIVE] <DF0: | DF1: | DF2: | DF3: | CC0:> [NOBOOT] [CHECK] [FFS]

Template: DRIVE/A,NOBOOT/S,CHECK/S,FFS/S

Location: C:

INSTALL clears a floppy disk's or PCMCIA memory card's boot block area and writes a valid boot onto it. INSTALL does not affect any files or directories on the disk or card. The necessary files and directories must still be present on a device to boot from it successfully.

The NOBOOT option removes the boot block from an AmigaDOS disk or card, making it not bootable.

The CHECK option checks for valid boot code. It reports whether a disk or card is bootable and whether standard Amiga boot code is present on the media. This is useful in detecting some viruses.

The FFS switch is ignored. It remains part of the template to ensure compatibility with earlier scripts and programs.

Example 1

1> INSTALL DF0: CHECK
No bootblock installed

indicates that there is a non-bootable floppy in DF0:.

Example 2

1> INSTALL DF0:

makes the disk in drive DF0: a bootable disk.

Example 3

1> INSTALL DF0: CHECK
Appears to be FFS bootblock

indicates that there is a bootable FFS floppy in DF0:.

IPF

Alters packet filtering lists for IP packet input and output.

IPSTAT

Reports on packet filter statistics and filter list.

IPMON

Monitors /dev/ipl for logged packets.

IPNAT

Defines NAT (Network Address Translation) rules.

JOIN

Concatenates two or more files into a new file.

Format: JOIN [FILE] <file | pattern>} AS | TO <filename>

Template: FILE/M/A,AS=TO/K/A

Location: C:

JOIN copies all the listed files, in the order given, to one new file. This destination file cannot have the same name as any of the source files. You must supply a destination file name. The original files remain unchanged. Any number of files can be JOINed in one operation.

TO can be used as a synonym for AS.

Example

1> JOIN Part1 Part2 Part3 AS Textfile

For another example using JOIN, see Chapter 8.

LAB

Specified a label in a script file.

Format: LAB [<string>]

Template: (none)

Location: Internal

LAB is used in script to define a label that is searched for by the SKIP command. The label <string> can be of any length, but must be alphanumeric. No symbols are allowed. If the <string> contains spaces, it must be enclosed in quotation marks.

See also: SKIP, IF, EXECUTE. For more examples using LAB, see Chapter 8.

LIST

Lists specified information about directories and files.

Format: LIST [{<dir | pattern | filename>}] [P | PAT <pattern>] [KEYS] [DATES] [NODATES] [TO <name>] [DUB <string>] [SINCE <date>] [UPTO <date>] [QUICK] [BLOCK] [NOHEAD] [FILES] [DIRS] [LFORMAT <string>] [ALL]

Template: DIR/M,P=PAT/K,KEYS/S,DATES/S,NODATES/S,TO/K,SUB/K,SINCE/K,UPTO/K,QUICK/S,BLOCK/S,NOHEAD/S,FILES/S,DIRS/S,LFORMAT/K,ALL/S

Location: C:

LIST displays information about the contents of the current directory. If you specify a <dir>, <pattern>, or <filename> argument, LIST displays information about the specified directory, all directories or files that match the pattern, or the specified file, respectively. The PAT argument lets you specify an additional pattern to match.

Unless other options are specified, LIST displays the following:

name	The name of the file or directory.
size	The size of the file in bytes. If there is nothing in this file, the field reads "empty". For directories, this entry reads "Dir".
protection	The protection bits that are set for this file are shown as letters. The clear (unset) bits are shown as hyphens. Most files show the default protection bits, ----rwed for readable/writable/executable/deletable. See the PROTECT command for more on protection bits.
date and time	The date and time the file was created or last changed.
comment	The comment, if any, placed on the file using the FILENOTE command. It is preceded by a colon (:).

LIST uses the following options to change the way the output is displayed:

KEYS	Displays the block number of each file header or directory.
DATES	Displays dates. (For example, DD-MMM-YY is the USA default).
NODATES	Does not display date and time information.
TO <name>	Specifies an output file or device for LIST; by default, LIST outputs to the current window.
SUB <string>	Lists only files containing the substring <string>.
SINCE <date>	Lists only files timestamped on or after the specified date.
UPTO <date>	Lists only files timestamped on or before the specified date.
QUICK	Lists only the names of files and directories.
BLOCK	Displays file sizes in 512-byte blocks, rather than bytes.
NOHEAD	Suppresses printing of the header and summary information.
FILES	Lists files only (no directories).
DIRS	Lists directories only (no files).
LFORMAT	Defines a string to specially format LIST output.
ALL	Lists the contents of all directories and subdirectories.

The LFORMAT option modifies the output of LIST and can be used as a quick method of generating script files. When using LFORMAT, specify an output format string; this string is output for each file or directory normally listed. It can contain any text you specify, plus the usual LIST output information. When LFORMAT is specified, the QUICK and NOHEAD options are automatically selected. To save the output, you must redirect it to a file by using the > operator or specifying a TO file. (For examples using the LIST LFORMAT option, see Chapter 8.)

The available substitution operators are:

%A	Prints file attributes (protection bits).
%B	Prints size of file in blocks.
%C	Prints any comments attached to the file.
%D	Prints the date associated with the file.
%E	Prints just the file extension.
%K	Prints the file key block number.
%L	Prints the length of the file in bytes.
%M	Prints the file name only, omitting any extension.
%N	Prints the name of the file.
%P	Prints the file parent path.
%S	Superseded by %N and %P; still functional.
%T	Prints the time associated with the file.

You can put a length specifier and/or a justification specifier between the percent sign (%) and the field specifier. To specify left justification, place a minus sign (-) before the length specifier. Otherwise, the information displayed is right justified.

The default output of the LIST command uses the following specification:

%-24 %7L %A %D %T

Example 1

> LIST Dirs

Prefs Dir ----rwed 27-Jun-93 11:43:59
T Dir ----rwed 16-Jul-93 11:37:43
Trashcan Dir ----rwed 21-Jun-93 17:54:20

Only the directories in the current directory, in this case SYS:, are listed. (A shortened version of the typical output is shown above.)

Example 2

1> LIST LI#? TO RAM:Libs.file

LIST searches for any directories or files that start with LI. The output of LIST is sent to Libs.file in RAM:.

Example 3

1> LIST DF0:Documents UPTO 09-Oct-90

Only the files or directories in the Documents directory of DF0: that have not been changed since October 9, 1990 are listed.

For further examples using the LIST command, see Chapter 8.

LOADMONDRVS

Starts monitor drivers.

LOADRESOURCE

Preloads resources into memory to avoid excessive disk swaps.

Format: LOADRESOURCE {<name>} [LOCK | UNLOCK]

Template: NAME/M,LOCK/S,UNLOCK/S

Location: C:

LOADRESOURCE reduces the need for excessive disk swaps on floppy-only systems by preloading the following of resources into memory:

Libraries	Specify the path name to the library.
Devices	Specify the path name to the device; you cannot LOCK devices into memory.
Fonts	Specify the path name to the exact font file to be loaded.
Catalogs	Specify a path name as LOCALE:Catalogs/<language>/Sys/<catalog>.

The {<name>} option specifies the paths of the resources to load. The LOCK option tells the command to lock resources, such as libraries, fonts, and catalogs, into memory. This prevents the system from flushing the resource from RAM if memory is low. Although you can preload devices into memory using LOADRESOURCE, you cannot force them to stay in memory using the LOCK option. The UNLOCK option tells the command to unlock the resource from memory, allowing it to be flushed from RAM.

Entering LOADRESOURCE with no options lists all the LOCKed resources in RAM.

Example 1

LOADRESOURCE LIBS:asl.library

loads asl.library into memory. The system can flush this library from RAM the next time it runs low on memory, unless the LOCK option is included in the command line.

Example 2

LOADRESOURCE FONTS:topaz/11

loads the Topaz 11 font into memory.

Example 3

LOADRESOURCE LOCALE:Catalogs/English/Sys/monitors.catalog

is a valid path name.

LOADWB

Starts Workbench.

Format: LOADWB [-DEBUG] [DELAY] [CLEANUP] [NEWPATH]

Template: -DEBUG/S,DELAY/S,CLEANUP/S,NEWPATH/S

Location: C:

LOADWB starts the Workbench. Normally, this is in the Startup-sequence file that starts Workbench when booting. If you close the Workbench, LOADWB can restart it from a Shell.

The -DEBUG option makes a special developer menu, Debug, available in the Workbench menu bar. If the DELAY option is specified, LOADWB waits three seconds before executing to allow disk activity time to stop. The CLEANUP option automatically performs a cleanup of the initial disk window.

Workbench snapshots the current paths in effect when the LOADWB command is executed. It uses these paths for each Shell started from Workbench. NEWPATH allows you to specify a new path that is snapshot from the current Shell.

Example 1

If you quit the Workbench and are working through a Shell, enter:

1> LOADWB

to return the Workbench. Entering LOADWB when the Workbench is already loaded has no effect.

Example 2

1> PATH DF2:bin ADD
1> LOADWB NEWPATH

loads the Workbench. Any Shells started from the icon have the same path as the Shell used to run the LOADWB NEWPATH command.

LOCK

Sets the write-protect status of a device.

Format: LOCK <drive> [ON | OFF] [<passkey>]

Template: DRIVE/A,ON/S,OFF/S,PASSKEY

Location: C:

LOCK sets or unsets the write-protect status of a device or partition. The LOCK remains on until the system is rebooted or until the LOCK is turned off with the LOCK OFF command.

An optional passkey can be specified. If the passkey is used to lock a hard disk partition, the same passkey must be specified to unlock the partition. The passkey can be any number of characters long.

Example

1> LOCK Work: ON SecretCode

The Work partition is locked. You can read the contents of Work with commands such as DIR, LIST, or MORE but you cannot alter the contents of the partition. If you try to edit the contents of a file on Work, a requester indicates that Work is write-protected. For example, if you try to create a new directory by entering the following:

1> MAKEDIR WORK:Test

the following message appears:

Can't create directory Work:Test
Disk is write-protected

To unlock the partition, enter:

1> LOCK Work: OFF SecretCode

Locking a device is only good for the duration of the current session. Resetting or turning off the Amiga cancels the lock.

LOGVIEWER

Captures any debug or notification messages sent by bsdsocket.library or its clients.

MAGTAPE

Retensions, rewinds, or skips forward SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) tapes.

Format: MAGTAPE [DEVICE <device name>] [UNIT <n>] [RET | RETENSION] [REW | REWIND] [SKIP <n>]

Template: DEVICE/K,UNIT/N/K,RET=RETENSION/S,REW=REWIND/S,SKIP/N/K

Location: C:

By default, MAGTAPE uses SCSI device unit 4. To change the default, you must use both the DEVICE and UNIT keywords.

The RET | RETENSION option runs the tape to the end and rewinds it. The REW | REWIND option rewinds the tape. The SKIP <n> option skips <n> files on the tape.

MAGTAPE tests to see if the unit is ready before sending the command. If your tape is not on-line, repeat the command.

Example

1> MAGTAPE DEVICE second_scsi.device UNIT 0 REW

MAKEDIR

Creates a new directory.

Format: MAKEDIR {<name}

Template: NAME/M

Location: C:

MAKEDIR creates new, empty directories with the names you specify. The command works within only one directory level at a time, so any directories on the given paths must already exist. The command fails of a directory or a file of the same name already exists in the directory in which you attempt to create a new one.

MAKEDIR does not create a drawer icon for the new directory.

Example 1

1> MAKEDIR Tests

creates a directory called Tests in the current directory.

Example 2

1> MAKEDIR DF1:Xyz

creates a directory Xyz in the root directory of the disk in DF1:.

Example 3

1> CD DF0:
1> MAKEDIR Documents Payables Orders

creates three directories on the disk in DF0:: Documents, Payables, and Orders.

For more examples using MAKEDIR, see Chapter 8.

MAKELINK

Creates a link between files.

Format: MAKELINK [FROM] <file> [TO] <file> [HARD] [FORCE]

Template: FROM/A,TO/A,HARD/S,FORCE/S

Location: C:

MAKELINK creates a FROM file, known as a link, that is a pointer to another file, the TO file, on the disk. When an application or command falls the FROM file, the TO file is used. By default, MAKELINK supports hard links: the FROM file and TO file must be on the same volume.

Normally, MAKELINK does not support directory links. To create a directory link, you must use the FORCE option. If MAKELINK detects that you are creating a circular link, such as a link to a parent directory, a Link loop not allowed message is issued.

MD5SUM

Calculates and compares checksums of files.

Format: MD5SUM [{dir|file|pattern|device}] [ALL] [DEVICES] [TO <name>] [SORT] [BUF=BUFFERSIZE <size>] [CHECK|FROM <name>] [STATUS] [QUIET] [WARN] [ALGORITHM {?|<name>}]

Template: NAMES/M,ALL/S,TO/K,DEVICES/S,SORT/S,BUF=BUFFERSIZE/K/N,CHECK=FROM/K,STATUS/S,WARN/S,QUIET/S,ALGORITHM/K

Location: C:

MD5SUM will read the contents of files or devices and calculate a checksum for each individual item. If you specify a <dir>, <pattern>, <filename>, or <device> argument, MD5SUM will calculate checksums for the specified directory, all directories, or files that match the pattern, or the specified file or device, respectively. MD5SUM can also determine whether a file or a checksum are consistent.

MD5SUM has options which will change the way the output is displayed and how input is processed. These options are explained below.

ALL calculates checksums for all files in directories and subdirectories.

DEVICES indicates that rather than checking the contents of a device file by file, the checksums should be calculated over the raw storage blocks instead. Note that only file system devices can be used which store data in disk blocks. This includes "df0:", "df1:", etc. but not "ram:" or "prt:".

TO <name> specifies an output file or device for MD5SUM; by default, MD5SUM ouputs to the current window.

SORT sorts the list before printing.

BUFFERSIZE <size> sets the size of the read buffer being used. Default is 262144 bytes (256 kB). Larger values can increase performance.

CHECK <name> causes MD5SUM to read the contents of a list file <name> previously generated by MD5SUM and try to open each file listed in it, calculate its checksum and compare it with the value given in the list. If no matching file could be opened or the checksums do not match, an error message will be printed. Use the STATUS option to omit all output.

If the STATUS option is supplied, no output will be generated if a mismatch is found while a list is being checked. Instead, MD5SUM will immediately abort with WARN condition set; this can be tested in script files.

WARN causes MD5SUM to print a warning message for each line in the list to be checked which does not match the format MD5SUM expects.

QUIET prevents MD5SUM from printing progress reports while individual files or devices are being read. The local shell variable _Verbosity with a negative value has the same effect. Progress reports are printed in about each second. No progress reports are printed if the SORT option is effect.

ALGORITHM sets the checksumming algorithm to be used. The default algorithm is "MD5", but there may be more modern algorithms supported, too. To find out which algorithms are available, enter "MD5SUM ALGORITHM ?", which will list all the supported algorithms by name. At this time of writing the following algorithms are implemented:

MD5	Message Digest #5, as defined in RFC 1321. Note: At this time of writing (2005-11-20) the MD5 algorithm can no longer be considered secure.
SHA-1	Secure Hash Algorithm #1, as defined in U.S. Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 180-1. This Algorithm produces 160 bits of checksum data. Note: At this time of writing (2005-11-20) the SHA-1 algorithm can no longer be considered secure.
SHA-256	Secure Hash Algorithm, as defined in U.S. Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 180-2. This Algorithm produces 256 bits of checksum data.
SHA-384	Secure Hash Algorithm, as defined in U.S. Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 180-2. This Algorithm produces 384 bits of checksum data.
SHA-512	Secure Hash Algorithm, as defined in U.S. Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 180-2. This Algorithm produces 512 bits of checksum data.
Whirlpool	As defined in ISO/IEC 10118-3. This algorithm produces 512 bits of checksum data. You can choose an algorithm by the name given. Note that the output produced by this MD5SUM program may not be compatible with other "md5sum" shell commands from the Unix world if you choose any checksumming algorithm other than "MD5" here. Good reasons why you might want to use a different checksumming algorithm are in the security of the original "MD5" algorithm. At this time of writing (2005-11-20) it is believed that both the "MD5" and "SHA-1" algorithms can no longer be considered secure and it is recommended that you use a more secure algorithm such as "SHA-256" or "Whirlpool" instead. Support for the "MD5" algorithm is preserved in this command only because "MD5" file checksums are still very common on the Internet.

Note
The format of the data produced and used by the MD5SUM command is compatible with the Unix "md5sum" program.

Example 1

Calculate checksums for all files in the C: directory and sort the list by file name before printing it:

 1> MD5SUM C: SORT
 1bd137145fbb3c409771b6bd889adb07  c:AddBuffers
 7ab3d10a31518a011a63e5a099beb876  c:AddDataTypes
 0ca24f1b23fb52642b895010edf79b89  c:Assign
 98abb6f23ca1097898cdf98a84c6d69f  c:Avail
 891ec3cb98bd0744cbb5f7407e678c71  c:BindDrivers

Example 2

Calculate the checksums for all files on the Work: partition, sort the list and store it in a file:

 1> MD5SUM Work: SORT TO Work.Checksums

Example 3

Calculate and compare the checksums for all files listed in the file 'Work.Checksums' and print the differences:

 1> MD5SUM CHECK Work.Checksums

Example 4

Calculate the checksums for the disks in the drives DF0 and DF1:

 1> MD5SUM DEVICES df0: df1:
 b0af4fc275bf1cb26016bd6abccc2548  df0:
 fc2b0af47b01ab5bf1cc6b48d6cc2526  df1:

Example 5

List all the supported checksumming algorithms:

 1> MD5SUM Algorithm ?
 MD5SUM: Supported algorithms are MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-384,
 SHA-512, Whirlpool.

MOUNT

Makes a device connected to the system available.

Format: MOUNT {device} [FROM <filename>]

Template: DEVICE/M,FROM/K

Location: C:

MOUNT reads a device's configuration parameters from a file. It then uses the parameter information to mount the devices or make them available to the system. Multiple devices can be mounted with a single command. The {device} argument specifies the names of the devices to be mounted.

MOUNT can process either DOSDrivers mount files or a traditional multiple-entry MountList file, depending on which of the following three ways the arguments are specified:

Given a device name, MOUNT tries to find a mount file of that name in DEVS:DOSDrivers, then in SYS:Storage/DOSDrivers, and finally as an entry in DEVS:MountList. This method is best if you have only one configuration for that device on your system.
Given a path, MOUNT looks for a mount file in that location. Wildcards may be used to mount multiple devices; as in MOUNT DEVS:DOSDrivers/~(#?.info). Use this method when you have mount files stored somewhere other than the DOSDrivers drawers or if you have several mount file to process at once.
Given the FROM keyword and a path, MOUNT specifies the location of a MountList file to process. Use this method if you have a MountList stored somewhere other than DEVS: or if you have several MountLists.

Note
A mount file's icon Tool Types, if any, override parameters of the same name in the mount file itself.

Example 1

1> MOUNT PIPE:

This looks for the mount file DEVS:DOSDrivers/PIPE and processes it if found. If DEVS:DOSDrivers/PIPE does not exist, MOUNT looks for SYS:Storage/DOSDrivers/PIPE. If this also fails, then MOUNT looks for a PIPE: entry in DEVS:MountList.

Example 2

1> MOUNT Work:Devices/PIPE

This looks for a PIPE mount file in Work:Devices.

Example 3

1> MOUNT PIPE: FROM SYS:Mydevs/MountList

This scans for a PIPE entry in SYS:Mydevs/MountList.

See Appendix B for further information on MountLists.

MOUNTINFO

Creates mount files for file systems.

MOVE

Moves files or directories.

NETLOGVIEWER

Captures any debug or notification messages sent by bsdsocket.library or its clients.

NETSHUTDOWN

Shuts down the network in an orderly fashion.

NEWCLI

Opens a new Shell window.

Format: NEWCLI [<window specification>] [FROM <filename>]

Template: WINDOW,FROM

Location: Internal

NEWCLI starts a new Shell process. It is the same as using the NEWSHELL command.

NEWSHELL

Opens a new Shell window.

Format: NEWSHELL [<window specification>] [FROM <filename>]

Template: WINDOW,FROM

Location: Internal

The new Shell window becomes the currently-selected window and process. The new window has the same current directory, prompt string, path, local environment variables, and stack size as the one from which it is invoked. However, each Shell window is independent, allowing separate input, output, and program execution.

The window can be sized, dragged, zoomed, and depth-adjusted like most other Amiga windows.

To create a custom window, you can include the <window specification> argument. Specify the initial dimensions, location, and title of the window with this <window specification> syntax:

CON:x/y/width/height/title/options

where:

x	Is the number of pixels from the left edge of the screen to the left border of the Shell window. Use a value (//) to specify the minimum possible pixels.
y	Is the number of pixels from the top of the screen to the top of the Shell window. Use no value (//) to specify the minimum possible pixels.
width	Is the width of the Shell window, in pixels. Use no value (//) to specify the full width of the screen.
height	Is the height of the Shell window, in pixels. Use no value (//) to specify minimum possible height.
title	Is the text that appears in the Shell window title bar.

Use slashes to separate the parameters and options. If any spaces appear in the specification argument, the entire argument must be enclosed in double quotation marks (").

The allowable options are:

AUTO	The window automatically appears when the program needs input or produces output. With the Shell window, it opens for input immediately. The window can only be closed with the ENDSHELL command. Selecting the Shell's close gadget closes the window, but it re-opens immediately since it is expecting input.
ALT	The window appears in the specified size and position when the zoom gadget is clicked. The four parameters must be separated with slashes (for example, ALT30/30/200/200).
BACKDROP	The window appears on the backdrop, behind all the Workbench windows. This Shell window cannot be brought to the front of the screen; you have to resize the Workbench windows to see it.
CLOSE	The window has all the standard gadgets, including a close gadget. This is the default for Shell windows, but you must specify it to get a standard Shell if you use the WINDOW argument.
INACTIVE	The window opens, but is not made the active window.
NOBORDER	The window opens without any left or bottom window border. Only the zoom, depth, and sizing gadgets are available.
NOCLOSE	The window does not have a close gadget. If you open a console normally, there is no close gadget. If you open a console using the AUTO option, there is automatically a close gadget on the window.
NODEPTH	The window has no window depth gadget.
NODRAG	The window cannot be dragged. It has zoom, depth and sizing gadgets, but no close gadget.
NOSIZE	The window only has a depth gadget.
SCREEN	The window opens on a public screen. The screen must already exist. You must specify the name of the screen after the SCREEN keyword.
SIMPLE	If you enlarge the window, the text expands to fill the newly available space, allowing you to see text that had been scrolled out of the window. This is the default for standard Shells.
SMART	If you enlarge the window, the text does not expand to fill the newly available space. This saves memory.
WAIT	The window can only be closed by selecting the close gadget or entering Ctrl+\. If WAIT is the only option, there is no close gadget.

NEWSHELL uses the default startup file S:Shell-startup, unless a FROM file name is specified. S:Shell-startup is a standard AmigaDOS script file. For example, you can have several different Shell-startup files, each having different command aliases. You can call such customized Shell environments with FROM.

The NEWCLI command has the same effect as NEWSHELL; it invokes a new Shell process.

Example 1

1> NEWSHELL

opens a new Shell window with the default window specification.

Example 2

1> NEWSHELL "CON://640/200/My Shell/CLOSE"

A window starting in the upper left corner of the screen and measuring 640 pixels wide and 200 pixels high opens. The window is titled My Shell and it has a close gadget. The entire argument is enclosed in quotation marks because the title contains a space. If you add the command to your User-startup file, a Shell window opens automatically when your Amiga is booted.

Example 3

1> NEWSHELL FROM S:Programming.startup

opens a new Shell, but instead of executing the Shell-startup file, the Programming.startup file is executed. You can have aliases and prompt commands in the Programming.startup file that are used only when you are programming.

For more examples using NEWSHELL, see Chapter 8.

NVGETVAR

Prints the value of all or a named UBoot environment variable.

OWNER

Changes the ownership of a file or directory.

PATH

Controls the directory list that the Shell searches to find commands.

Format: PATH [{<dir>}] [ADD] [SHOW] [RESET] [REMOVE] [QUIET]

Template: PATH/M,ADD/S,SHOW/S,RESET/S,REMOVE/S,QUIET/S

Location: Internal

PATH lets you see, add to, or change the search path the AmigaDOS follows when looking for a command or program to execute. When a directory is in the search path, you do not need to specify the complete path to any command within that directory. Entering the name alone makes AmigaDOS look through the directories in the search path until it finds the file.

Note
The search path is only relevant when AmigaDOS is searching for a command or program to execute. Full path specifications are always necessary in arguments for commands such as COPY and DELETE.

Enter the PATH command alone or with the SHOW option to display directory names in the current search path. Normally, when PATH is displaying the directory names, a requester appears if a volume that is part of the search path cannot be found. For example, if you add a floppy disk to the search path and then remove that disk from the disk drive, a requester asks you to insert the disk.

If you specify the QUIET option, PATH does not display requesters for volumes that are not currently mounted. If PATH encounters an unmounted volume, it displays the message device (or volume) is not mounted . The names of any directories on that volume included in the PATH are not displayed.

The ADD option specifies directory to be added to the current PATH. You can add any number of directories with one PATH ADD command (the ADD keyword is optional); names of the directories must be separated by at least one space. When you issue the PATH command, AmigaDOS searches for each of the ADDed directories.

To replace the existing search path with a new one, use PATH RESET followed by the names of the new directories. The existing search path, except for the current directory and C:, is erased and the new one is substituted.

The REMOVE option eliminates the named directory from the search path.

Example

1> PATH EXTRAS:Tools ADD

adds the Tools directory in the Extras drawer to the search path of the Shell. If the EXTRAS: is not in a disk drive, a requester asks you to insert it in any drive.

If you remove EXTRAS: from the drive and enter:

1> PATH

a list of directories in the search path is displayed. A requester asks you to insert EXTRAS:. If you enter:

1> PATH QUIET

the list of directories in the search path is displayed. However, when the path comes to Extras:Tools, the error message appears in the list.

See also: ASSIGN. For more examples using PATH, see Chapter 8.

PATHPART

Splits and assembles directory and file names.

PING

Sends ICMP ECHO_REQUEST packets to network hosts.

PIPE

Connects input and output streams of Shell commands.

POPCD

Returns the directory last recently saved with the PUSHCD command.

PROMPT

Changes the prompt string of the current Shell.

Format: PROMPT [<prompt>]

Template: PROMPT

Location: Internal

PROMPT allows you to customize the prompt string, the text printed by the Shell at the beginning of a command line. The prompt string can contain any characters, including escape sequences.

This manual shows the prompt string as 1>.

The default prompt string is:

"%N.%S>"

which displays the Shell number, a period, the current directory, a right angle-bracket, and a space. Entering PROMPT without a string argument resets the prompt to this default.

The substitutions available for the <prompt> string are:

%N	Displays the process number for the Shell.
%S	Displays the current directory.
%R	Displays the return code for the last operation.

A space is not automatically added to the end of the string. If you want a space between the prompt and typed-in text, place it in the string, and enclose the string in double quotation marks,

You can embed commands in the prompt string by enclosing the command in back apostrophes (`).

Example 1

1> PROMPT %N
1

Only the Shell number is shown. The > is removed from the prompt.

Example 2

1> PROMPT "%N.%S.%R>"
1.Work:Snim.0>

The Shell number, current directory, and return code of the previous command are shown. A space is included after the >.

For more examples using the PROMPT command, see Chapter 8.

PROTECT

Changes the protection bits of a file or directory.

Format: PROTECT [FILE] <file | pattern> [FLAGS][+ | -] [<flags>] [ADD | SUB] [ALL] [QUIET]

Template: FILE/A,FLAGS,ADD/S,SUB/S,ALL/S,QUIET/S

Location: C:

All files and directories have a series of protection bits (attributes) stored with them that control their properties. These bits can be altered to indicate the type of file and the operations permitted. PROTECT is used to set or clear the protection bits. For directories, only the d bit is significant.

The protection bits are represented by letters:

s	The file is a script.
p	The file is a pure command and can be made resident.
a	The file has been archived.
r	The file can be read.
w	The file can be written to (altered).
e	The file is executable (a program).
d	The file or directory can be deleted. (Files within a delete-protected directory can still be deleted.)

Use the LIST command to see the protection bits associated with a file. The protection field is displayed with set (on) bits shown by their letters and clear (off) bits shown by hyphens. For example, a file that is readable, writable, and deletable has ----rw-d in the protection field.

To specify the entire protection field at the same time, enter the letters of the bits you want set as the FLAGS argument without any other keywords. The named bits are set and all the others are cleared.

The symbols + and - (or the equivalent keywords ADD and SUB) are used to control specific bits without affecting the state of unspecified bits. Follow + or - with the letters of the bits to set or clear, respectively, and only those bits are changed. There is no space after the symbol or between the letters. The order of the letters does not matter. ADD and SUB work similarly, but there must be a space between the keyword and the letters. You cannot both set and clear bits in the same command.

The ALL options adds or removes the specified protection bits from all the files and subdirectories matching the pattern entered. The QUIET option suppresses the screen output.

Example 1

1> PROTECT DF0:Memo +rw

sets only the protection bits r (readable) and w (writable) of the file Memo on DF0:. No other protection bits are changed.

Example 2

1> PROTECT L:#? e SUB

clears the e (executable) protection bit from all the files in the L: directory.

Example 3

1> PROTECT Work:Paint rwed

The protection status of Paint becomes "----rwed".

PUSHCD

Saves the current directory on a stack and optionally changes it.

QUIT

Exits from a script file with a specified return code.

Format: QUIT [<return code>]

Template: RC/N

Location: Internal

QUIT stops the execution of the script at the specified return code. The default return code is zero. We recommend you use the standard return code values of 5, 10, and 20.

Example

ASK "Do you want to stop now?"
IF WARN
   QUIT 5
ENDIF
ECHO "OK"
ECHO "The script is continuing."

If you press Y at the prompt, the script is aborted, since WARN is equal to a return code of 5. If you press N or press Return:

OK
The script is continuing.

Is displayed in the Shell window.

REBOOT

Reboots your Amiga.

RECORDER

Captures console output and stores it in a file.

RELABEL

Changes the volume name of the disk in the given drive to the specified name.

Format: RELABEL [DRIVE] <drive> [NAME] <name>

Template: DRIVE/A,NAME/A

Location: C:

Volume names are set when disks are initially formatted. RELABEL allows you to change a disk's volume name to any name specified.

On floppy-only systems with one drive, be sure to specify the disks by volume name instead of drive name.

Examples

1> RELABEL Workbench: MyDisk

changes the name of the Workbench disk to MyDisk. No colon is necessary after the second name.

1> RELABEL DF2: DataDisk

changes the name of the disk in DF2: to DataDisk.

REMRAD

Removes the recoverable RAM disk.

Format: REMRAD [<device>] [FORCE]

Template: DEVICE,FORCE/S

Location: C:

REMRAD allows you to remove the recoverable RAM disk (usually mounted as RAD:) from memory without powering off the system. If you have mounted more than one recoverable RAM disk, use the DEVICE specification.

REMRAD instructs RAD: to delete all of its files and become inactive. However, the RAD: RAM_0 disk icon does not disappear. The next time the Amiga is rebooted. RAD: is removed from memory completely and the icon is no longer displayed.

If the device is in use when the REMRAD command is given, the operation aborts with a device in use message. To remove it if it is in use, you must use the FORCE option.

RENAME

Changes the name of or moves a file or directory.

Format: RENAME [FROM] {<name} [TO | AS] <name>

Template: FROM/A/M,TO=AS/A,QUIET/S

Location: C:

RENAME renames the FROM file or directory with the specified TO name. The FROM and TO files or directories must be on the same volume. If the name refers to a directory, RENAME changes the directory name without changing the names of the files or subdirectories in that directory. When there are multiple items in the FROM argument, the TO argument must be a directory.

If you rename a directory or if you use RENAME to give a file another directory name, AmigaDOS changes the position of that directory or file in the filing system hierarchy. This effectively moves the items.

Example 1

1> RENAME Work/Ex1 AS :Test/Ex2

renames the file Ex1 as Ex2 and moves it from the Work directory to the Test directory. The Test directory must exist in the root directory for this command to work.

Example 2

1> RENAME 3.doc 5.doc a.doc TO Docs

moves the 3.doc, 5.doc, and a.doc files to the Docs directory. The Docs directory must already exist.

REQUESTCHOICE

Allows AmigaDOS and ARexx scripts to use custom requesters.

Format: REQUESTCHOICE <title text> <body text> {<gadgets>} [TYPE <type>] [TO <file>] [PUBSCREEN <public screen name>] [TIMEOUTSECS <seconds>] [CHARSET <character set>] [INACTIVE]

Template: TITLE/A,BODY/A,GADGETS/A/M,TYPE/K,TO/K,PUBSCREEN/K,TIMEOUTSECS/K/N,CHARSET/K,INACTIVE/S

Location: C:

The TITLE argument specifies the title of the requester.

The BODY argument specifies the text of the requester. Line feeds can be embedded using *N. For other formatting options see the requester class autodoc: requester_cl.doc

The GADGETS argument specifies the text for the different gadgets. The gadget labels are separated with spaces.

The TYPE argument specifies the type of requester to display. Possible types are INFO, QUESTION, WARNING, ERROR, and INSERTDISK. If not specified, INFO is assumed when a single gadget is specified, QUESTION otherwise.

The TO argument specifies an output file where the result is written to.

The TIMEOUTSECS argument specifies the maximum number of seconds to display the requester before its closed and the result -1 is returned. Specifying 0 timeout seconds means no timeout.

The PUBSCREEN argument allows the requester to open its window on a public screen.

The CHARSET argument allows to specify the character set of the strings given in the BODY and GADGETS arguments. The TITLE argument is always displayed in the character set of the screen font.

The INACTIVE argument specifies that the requester window should not be activated when opened.

The number of the selected gadget is printed as a result to the console or written to the output file. The gadgets are numbered from left to right as 1, 2, 3, ..., 0. The special result -1 is printed when the TYPE argument was INSERTDISK and a disk was inserted. For evaluation in a script file, you can redirect this output into an environment variable. If the requester cannot be opened, the command generates a return code of 20, 0 otherwise.

Example

1> RequestChoice >ENV:rcnum "New Title" "This is my requester.*nSelect a gadget." "_OK" "_Maybe" "_Cancel"

The local Shell variable rcnum contains 1, 2, or 0 (respectively) after a gadget is selected. The script can use this value to control its later execution.

Sample RequestChoice Requester

ENV:rcnum contains 0, 1, or 2 after a gadget is selected. The script can use this value to control its later execution.

REQUESTFILE

Allows AmigaDOS and ARexx scripts to use a file requester.

Format: REQUESTFILE [DRAWER <drawer name>] [FILE <file>] [PATTERN <pattern>] [TITLE <title>] [POSITIVE <text>] [NEGATIVE <text>] [ACCEPTPATTERN <pattern>] [REJECTPATTERN <pattern>] [SAVEMODE] [MULTISELECT] [DRAWERSONLY] [NOICONS] [PUBSCREEN <public screen name>]

Template: DRAWER,FILE/K,PATTERN/K,TITLE/K,POSITIVE/K,NEGATIVE/K,ACCEPTPATTERN/K,REJECTPATTERN/K,SAVEMODE/S,MULTISELECT/S,DRAWERSONLY/S,NOICONS/S,PUBSCREEN/K

Location: C:

When entered with no arguments, a file requester with OK, Volumes, Parent, and Cancel buttons is created. Ist Drawer and File gadgets are empty and it displays the contents of the current directory.

The DRAWER argument specifies the initial contents of the Drawer gadget.

The FILE option specifies the initial contents of the File gadget.

The PATTERN option allows the use of a standard AmigaDOS pattern. It includes a Pattern gadget in the requester and specifies the initial contents of the gadget. If this option is not provided, the file requester does not have any Pattern gadget.

The TITLE option specifies the title of the requester.

The POSITIVE option specifies the text to appear in the positive (left) choice in the file requester.

The NEGATIVE option specifies the text to appear in the negative (right) choice in the file requester.

The ACCEPTPATTERN option specifies a standard AmigaDOS pattern. Only files matching this pattern are displayed in the file requester.

The REJECTPATTERN option specifies a standard AmigaDOS pattern. Files matching this pattern are not displayed in the file requester.

If SAVEMODE is specified, the requester is used for writing files to disk. If MULTISELECT is specified, the requester allows multiple files to be selected at once. If DRAWERSONLY is specified, the requester does not have a File gadget. This effectively turns the file requester into a directory requester. If NOICONS is specified, the requester does not display icons (.info files).

The selected files are returned on the command line, enclosed in double quotation marks and separated with spaces. The command generates a return code of 0 if you select a file or 5 if you cancel the requester.

The PUBSCREEN argument allows the requester to open its window on a public screen.

Example

1> REQUESTFILE DRAWER Devs: TITLE "My Req" NOICONS

Sample RequestFile Requester

REQUESTSTRING

Allows AmigaDOS and ARexx scripts to use custom string requesters.

Format: REQUESTSTRING <title text> <body text> [POSITIVE <OK gadget text>] [NEGATIVE <Cancel gadget text>] [DEFSTRING <default text>] [MAXLEN=<n>] [NOTEMPTY] [INVISIBLE] [TO <filename>] [PUBSCREEN <public screen name>] [CHARSET <character set>] [INACTIVE]

Template: TITLE/A,BODY/A,POSITIVE/K,NEGATIVE/K,DEFSTRING/K,MAXLEN/K/N,NOTEMPTY/S,INVISIBLE/S,TO/K,PUBSCREEN/K,CHARSET/K,INACTIVE/S

Location: C:

The TITLE argument specifies the title of the requester.

The BODY argument specifies the text of the requester. Line feeds can be embedded using *N. For other formatting options see the requester class autodoc: requester_cl.doc

The POSITIVE argument specifies the text for the OK gadget. Default is the localized "_OK" text.

The NEGATIVE argument specifies the text for the Cancel gadget. Default is the localized "_Cancel" text.

The DEFSTRING argument specifies the default text for the string gadget. Default is empty string.

The MAXLEN argument specifies the maximum length of the string. Default is 256. The length does not include the NULL termination, e.g. "A" is considered to have a length of 1. Negative and zero values are silently ignored and replaced with the default value.

The NOTEMPTY switch does not allow the user to enter an empty string.

The INVISIBLE switch specifies that the text in the string gadget should be displayed with '*' characters, e.g. for entering passwords that should not be visible to a person behind the user.

The TO argument specifies the file where to store the result string. If not specified, the string is written to the default output.

The PUBSCREEN argument specifies the name of the public screen where to open the requester window. If not specified, the current default public screen is used. The screen is brought to the front before opening the window if necessary, and to the back after closing the window if it was brought to the front before.

The CHARSET argument allows to specify the character set of the string given in the BODY, POSITIVE, NEGATIVE, and DEFSTRING arguments. The TITLE argument is always displayed in the character set of the screen font.

The INACTIVE argument specifies that the requester window should not be activated when opened.

RequestString will return with RETURN_FAIL (20) on any failure, with RETURN_WARN (5) if the user clicked the Cancel gadget (the result string is the provided default string in this case), and with RETURN_OK (0) otherwise. The result string (or the default string, if the user did cancel the requester) will be enclosed in quotation marks, then terminated with linefeed, and written to the file specified with the TO argument or the default output.

Example

1> Set Title "Edit file comment"
1> Set Body "Comment for MyFile:"
1> Set Def "`List MyFile LFORMAT %c`"
1> Set Note `RequestString "$Title" "$Body" DEFSTRING "$Def"`
1> FileNote MyFile "$Note"

Sample RequestString Requester

RESIDENT

Displays and modifies the list of resident commands.

Format: RESIDENT [<resident name>] [<filename>] [REMOVE] [ADD] [REPLACE] [PURE | FORCE] [SYSTEM]

Template: NAME,FILE,REMOVE/S,ADD/S,REPLACE/S,PURE=FORCE/S,SYSTEM/S

Location: Internal

RESIDENT loads a command into memory and adds it to the resident list maintained by the Shell. This allows the command to be executed without reloading it from disk each time. If RESIDENT is invoked with no options, it lists the programs on the resident list.

To be made resident, a command should be pure, meaning that it is both re-entrant and re-executable. A re-entrant command can properly support independent use by two or more programs at the same time. A re-executable command dies not have to be reloaded to be executed again. Commands that have these characteristics are called pure and have the p (pure) protection bit set.

The following commands cannot be made resident: BINDDRIVERS, CONCLIP, IPREFS, LOADRESOURCE, LOADWB, and SETPATCH.

LIST the C: directory to check for the presence of the p protection bit to determine which commands are pure.

Many of the commands in the C: directory, as well as the MORE command in Utilities, are pure commands and can be made resident. If a command does not have its pure bit set, it probably cannot be made resident safely. (Setting the pure bit does not make a command or program pure.)

The REPLACE option is the default option and does not need to be explicitly stated. If no <resident name> is specified (for example, only a file name is specified), RESIDENT uses the file name portion as the name on the resident list. The full path to the file must be used.

If a <resident name> is specified and RESIDENT finds a program with that name already on the list, it attempts to replace the command. That <resident name> must be used to reference the resident version of the command. The replacement succeeds only if the already-resident command is not in use.

To override REPLACEment and make several versions of a command resident simultaneously, use the ADD option, giving a different <resident name> for each version loaded.

If the System option is specified, the command is added to the system portion of the resident list and becomes available as a system component. Any commands added to the resident list with the SYSTEM option cannot be removed. To list these files on the RESIDENT list, you must specify the SYSTEM option.

The PURE option forces RESIDENT to load commands that are not marked as pure and use them to test the pureness of other commands and programs. Use the PURE option with caution. Be sure the programs that you make RESIDENT meet the criteria to be resident or be careful to use the command in only one process at a time.

The availability of internal commands can also be controlled with RESIDENT. To deactivate an Internal command (for example, if an application has its own command of the same name), use RESIDENT <command> REMOVE. The command can be reactivated with the REPLACE option.

Example 1

1> RESIDENT C:COPY

makes the COPY command resident (replaces any previous version).

Example 2

1> RESIDENT Copy2 DF1:C/COPY ADD

adds another version of COPY to the resident list, under the name Copy2.

Example 3

1> RESIDENT Xdir DF1:C/Xdir PURE

makes an experimental, non-pure version of the DIR command resident.

Example 4

1> RESIDENT CD REMOVE

makes the Internal CD command unavailable.

Example 5

1> RESIDENT CD REPLACE

restores the CD command to the system.

ROADSHOWCONTROL

Displays and changes the internal configuration options of the TCP/IP stack.

RUN

Executes commands as background processes.

Format: RUN <command...> [{+ <command>}]

Template: COMMAND/F

Location: Internal

RUN is used to start background processes. A background process does not open its own window for input or output and does not take over the parent Shell.

RUN attempts to execute the <command> and any arguments entered on the command line. You can RUN multiple command lines by separating them with plus signs (+). If you press Return after a plus sign, RUN interprets the next line as a continuation of the same command line.

To make it possible to close the Shell window in which the process was started, redirect the output of RUN with RUN >NIL: <command>.

A new background Shell has the same search path and command stack size as the Shell from which RUN is given.

You can RUN commands stored to the resident list. Resident commands are checked before commands in the command path. A Shell started with RUN NEWSHELL uses the default startup file, S:Shell-startup.

Example 1

1> RUN COPY Text TO PRT:+
DELETE Text +
ECHO "Printing finished"

prints the Text file by copying it to the printer device, deletes it, then displays the given message. Plus signs string together the command lines, causing each command to be run after the previous command finishes.

Example 2

1> RUN EXECUTE Comseq

executes, in the background, all the commands in the script file Comseq.

For more examples using the RUN command, see Chapter 8.

RX

Launches an ARexx program.

Format: RX <name> [<arguments>]

Template: NAME,ARG/F

Location: C:

RX launches an ARexx program. If the specified name includes an explicit path, only that directory is searched for the program; otherwise, the current directory and REXX: are checked for a program with the given name. The optional argument string is passed to the program.

In place of the name of an ARexx program to be launched you can also write a short list of ARexx statements which will be executed as a single line command. To do so, enclose the statements in double quotes.

The RX program will try to start the ARexx resident process before it will attempt to launch a program.

You can also use the RX program from Workbench. Make it the default tool of an ARexx program, then double-click on the icon. The following tool types are supported:

CONSOLE	Overrides the default output console window specification, "CON://640/100/WAIT/RX Output".
CMD	Use the command given in the tool type text rather than attempt to execute the ARexx program the icon is attached to.
STARTUP	If present, try to run a different program before the ARexx program is launched. If this is omitted, "RexxMast" will be launched.

Example 1

Launch the ARexx command "script.rexx" with argument "Names.txt".

1> RX script.rexx Names.txt

Example 2

Launch the ARexx command "script.rexx". Note that the command name suffix is omitted and defaults to ".rexx"

1> RX script

Example 3

Evaluate an ARexx expression.

1> RX "say 17 / 23"

RXC

Closes the ARexx resident process.

Format: RXC

Template: -

Location: C:

RXC closes the ARexx resident process. The "REXX" public port is withdrawn immediately and the resident process exits as soon as the last ARexx program finishes. No new programs can be launched after a close request.

RXLIB

Manages and lists ARexx function libraries and hosts.

Format: RXLIB <name> [<priority> [<offset> [<version>]]]

Template: NAME,PRIORITY,OFFSET/N,VERSION/N

Location: C:

RXLIB manages function libraries and hosts, so that they can be called from ARexx, and it can also be used to list which libraries are currently defined.

To add a new library, specify its name, priority and offset value. The priority must be in the range -100.100. For your library to be invoked before the resident process has a look at a command, make sure that the priority is greater than -60. The offset value is the actual library vector offset and should be documented with each library. The last parameter, the required library version, can usually be omitted in which case 0 will be used (any library version is acceptable).

Note
Do not get the library offset value wrong or ARexx will crash when the next attempt is made to call a function library!

To add a new host, specify its name and priority, but omit the offset value and version number. Note that at the time the host is added no test is performed to verify that a public message port of that name exists.

Note
You cannot directly replace an existing function library or host with a new entry. The old entry needs to be removed before the new entry can be added.

To remove a library or host, specify its name and omit the priority, offset, and version parameters.

To list all function libraries and hosts, omit the library name, priority, offset, and version parameters.

Example 1

Add "rexxsupport.library":

1> RXLIB rexxsupport.library 0 -30

Example 2

Show all active libraries and hosts:

1> RXLIB
rexxsupport.library (library)
REXX (host)

Example 3

Remove "rexxsupport.library":

1> RXLIB rexxsupport.library

Example 4

Add a new host by the name of "MORE":

1> RXLIB MORE -1

RXSET

Manage or list the Clip List.

Format: RXSET [<name> [[=] <value>]]

Template: NAME,VALUE/F

Location: C:

RXSET adds a name-value pair to the Clip List. Name strings are assumed to be in mixed case. If a pair with the same name already exists, its value is replaced with the current string. If a name without a value string is given, the entry is removed from the Clip List. If RXSET is invoked without arguments, it will list all name-value pairs in the Clip List.

Note
The original RXSET command would preserve the exact number of blank spaces in the 'value' string. This is not the case with this new version of the command, which will always put exactly one blank space between the words in the 'value' string. If you need an exact number of blank spaces, you should put them into double quotes.

Example 1

Add the name-value pair "answer=42" to the Clip List (more than one syntax is supported; all three examples are equivalent):

1> RXSET answer=42
1> RXSET answer = 42
1> RXSET answer 42

Example 2

Show the current Clip List contents:

1> RXSET
answer=42

SEARCH

Looks for the specified text string in the files of the specified directories.

Format: SEARCH [FROM] {<name | pattern>} [SEARCH] <string | pattern> [ALL] [NONUM] [QUIET] [QUICK] [FILE] [PATTERN]

Template: FROM/M,SEARCH/A,ALL/S,NONUM/S,QUIET/S,QUICK/S,FILE/S,PATTERN/S

Location: C:

SEARCH looks through all the files in the FROM directory for the string given in the SEARCH string. (The FROM and SEARCH keywords are optional.) If the ALL switch is given, SEARCH also looks through all the subdirectories of the FROM directory. SEARCH displays the name of the file being searched and any line that contains the text sought. You must place quotation marks around any search text containing a space. The search is not case-sensitive.

The options are:

NONUM	Line numbers are not printed with the strings.
QUIET	Searches quietly; file names being searched are not displayed.
QUICK	Use a more compact output format.
FILE	Looks for a file by the specified name, rather than for a string in the file.
PATTERN	Uses pattern matching to search for the string.

SEARCH leaves a 0 in the condition flag if the object is found, and a 5 (WARN) otherwise. To abandon the search of the current file and continue to the next file, if any, press Ctrl+D. SEARCH is aborted when Ctrl+C is pressed.

Examples

1> SEARCH DEVS: DOSDrivers globvec
DOSDrivers (dir)
PIPE..
6 GlobVec =-1
PIPE.info

1> SEARCH utilities #?.info FILE
Workbench:Utilities/Clock.info
Workbench:Utilities/MultiView.info

SET

Sets a local vaiable.

Format: SET [<name>] [<string...>]

Template: NAME,STRING/F

Location: Internal

SET with no arguments lists the current local variables.

SET with <name> and <string> arguments creates a new environment variable. The first word after SET is taken as the <name>. Everything else on the command line is taken as the <string> argument. Quotation marks are not required.

An environment variable created with SET is local to the Shell in which it was created. If you create a new Shell with the NEWSHELL command, that Shell also recognizes any variables created in its parent Shell. However, if you create a new Shell with the Execute Command Workbench menu item or by opening the Shell icon, variables created with SET are not recognized in the new Shells.

You can call environment variables in a script or on a command line by placing a dollar sign ($) in front of the variable name.

To remove a local variable definition, use the UNSET command.

Examples

1> SET Origin This process launched from icon

creates the local variable Origin that sores a reminder that a Shell was invoked from an icon rather than a NEWSHELL.

1> ECHO $Origin
This process launched from icon

SETCLOCK

Sets or reads the battery backed-up hardware clock.

Format: SETCLOCK LOAD | SAVE | RESET

Template: LOAD/S,SAVE/S,RESET/S

Location: C:

SETCLOCK SAVE sets the date and time of the battery backed-up hardware clock (if your system has one) from the current system time, which is set with the Time editor or with the DATE command. SETCLOCK SAVE is typically used after a DATE command.

SETCLOCK LOAD sets the current system time from the battery backed-up clock. This is done automatically during the boot process.

The RESET option resets the clock completely. Use this option if the clock is accidentally turned off or LOAD and SAVE do not appear to work correctly.

Example

1> DATE 22-Jan-93 07:15:25
1> SETCLOCK SAVE

saves the date, January 22, 1993, and the time, 7:15 a.m., to the battery backed-up hardware clock. When the system is booted, the system clock is set with the time saved in the hardware clock.

Some Amiga models do not have battery backed-up clocks unless an expansion unit has been installed.

SETDATE

Change the timestamp of a file or directory.

Format: SETDATE <file | pattern> [<weekday>] [<date>] [] [ALL]

Template: FILE/A,WEEKDAY,DATE,TIME,ALL/S

Location: C:

SETDATE changes the timestamp, the date and time of the creation or last change, of a file or directory. SETDATE <file> changes the date/time of the file to the current system date/time. SETDATE ALL changes the date and time of all the files and subdirectories matching the pattern entered.

The system clocks are not affected by SETDATE.

You can use output from the DATE command as input to SETDATE.

Example 1

1> SETDATE TestFile

changes the date and time associated with TestFile to the current date and time.

Example 2

1> SETDATE TestFile 01-04-91 13:45:32

Changes the date and time associated with TestFile to April 1, 1991, 1:45 p.m.

SETENV

Sets a global variable.

Format: SETENV [<name>] [<string...>]

Template: NAME,STRING/F

Location: Internal

SETENV with no arguments lists the current global variables.

SETENV with <name> and <string> arguments creates a new global environment variable. The first word after SETENV is taken as the <name>. Everything else on the command line is taken as the <string> argument. Quotation marks are not required.

Global variables are stored in the ENV: directory and are available to all processes. However, if a local variable (defined by SET) and a global variable share the same name, the local variable is used.

Environment variables are called by scripts or other commands by including a dollar sign ($) in front of the variable name.

To remove a global variable definition, use the UNSETENV command.

Example 1

1> SETENV Editor Extras:Tools/MEmacs

creates the environment variable Editor That can be used with the MORE utility. This specifies the editor as MEmacs, located in the Tools drawer of EXTRAS:. The variable Editor is available in any Shell.

Example 2

1> SETENV Editor C:ED

same as above, only the editor specified is ED.

1> ECHO $Editor
C:ED

SETFONT

Changes the font of the current Shell.

Format: SETFONT <size> [SCALE] [PROP] [ITALIC] [BOLD] [UNDERLINE]

Template: NAME/A,SIZE/N/A,SCALE/S,PROP/S,ITALIC/S,BOLD/S,UNDERLINE/S

Location: C:

SETFONT lets you change the font used in a particular Shell window, overriding the System Default Text setting specified in the Font editor. SETFONT is only effective in the window in which it is invoked.

You must specify both a font name and a size when using the SETFONT command. The other options are:

SCALE	Enables bitmap font scaling.
PROP	Allows proportional fonts.
ITALIC	The font is italic.
BOLD	The font is boldface.
UNDERLINE	The font is underlined.

Invoking SETFONT clears the Shell window of its current contents and displays a new prompt, in the new font, at the top of the window. Using proportional fonts in a Shell window is not recommended because the variable character spacing prevents columns of information from lining up and makes editing the command line difficult.

Example

1> SETFONT topaz 11 BOLD UNDERLINE

The Shell window clears and the new prompt is in 11 point Topaz, underlined and boldface.

SETFONTCHARSET

Adds charset tag and version string to a FontContentsHeader file.

SETKEYBOARD

Sets the keymap for the Shell.

Format: SETKEYBOARD <keymap name>

Template: KEYMAP/A

Location: C:

SETKEYBOARD specifies the keymap used by the current Shell. The available files are listed below:

Keymap	Keyboard
cdn	Canadian Français
ch1	Suisse
ch2	Schweiz
d	Deutsch
dk	Dansk
e	Español
f	Français
gb	British
i	Italiana
n	Norsk
po	Português
s	Svenskt
usa	American
usa2	Dvorak

To specify the same permanent keymap, use the Preferences Input editor to save your choice.

Example

To change to a French Canadian keymap, enter:

1> SETKEYBOARD cdn

The keymap file must be in the KEYMAPS: directory for SETKEYBOARD to find it.

SHOWNETSTATUS

Displays various information about the status of the network configuration.

SKIP

Skips to a label when executing script files.

Format: SKIP [<label>] [BACK]

Template: LABEL,BACK/S

Location: Internal

SKIP is used in scripts to allow you to skip ahead in the script to a <label> defined by a LAB statement. If no <label> is specified, SKIP jumps to the next LAB statement.

SKIP always searches forward from the current line of the file. However, when the BACK option is used, SKIP starts searching for the label from the beginning of the file. This allows SKIPs to points prior to the SKIP command.

You can only SKIP as far back as the last EXECUTE statement. If there are no EXECUTE statements in a script, you SKIP back to the beginning of the file.

If SKIP does not find the label specified, the command sequence terminates and the message Label <label> not found by Skip is displayed.

Example

Assume you have the following script, called CheckFile:

.KEY name
IF exists <name>
   SKIP message
ELSE
   ECHO "<name> is not in this directory."
   QUIT
ENDIF
LAB message
ECHO "The <name> file exists."

You can run the script by entering:

1> EXECUTE CheckFile Document

If the Document file exists in the current directory, the execution of the script SKIPs ahead to the LAB command. The message:

The Document file exists.

Is displayed in the Shell window.

If the Document file is not in the current directory, the execution of the script jumps to the line after the ELSE statement, displaying the message:

Document is not in this directory.

See also: EXECUTE, LAB. For more examples using the SKIP command, see Chapter 8.

SMARTCTL

Control and monitor SMART disks.

Format: SMARTCTL [<options>] <device>

Template: LABEL,BACK/S

Location: C:

SORT

Alphabetically sorts the lines of a file.

Format: SORT [FROM] <file | pattern> [TO] <filename> [COLSTART <n>] [CASE] [NUMERIC]

Template: FROM/A,TO/A,COLSTART/K,CASE/S,NUMERIC/S

Location: C:

SORT sorts the FROM file alphabetically, line-by-line, sending the sorted results to the TO file. SORT assumes the file is a normal text file in which lines are separated by line feeds. SORT normally disregards case. If the CASE switch is given, upper-cased items are output first.

The COLSTART keyword specifies the character column at which the comparison begins. SORT starts comparing the lines from that point, wrapping around to the beginning of the line if the compared lines match to the end.

When the NUMERIC option is specified, the lines are interpreted as numbers from the first column reading to the right, stopping at the first non-numeric character. Lines not beginning with numbers are treated as 0. The lines are output in numerical order. CASE is ignored when NUMERIC is specified.

Example

1> SORT DF0:Glossary TO DF0:Glossary.alpha

sorts the lines in the Glossary file, arranges them alphabetically, and outputs them to a next file called Glossary.alpha. The case of the words is disregarded.

For more examples using the SORT command, see Chapter 8.

SOUNDPLAYER

Plays a sound sample.

Format: SOUNDPLAYER [VERBOSE] [QUIET] [R | RATE | SAMPLERATE <sample rate>] [<sample file>] [VOL | VOLUME <volume>]

Template: V=VERBOSE/S,Q=QUIET/S,SR=RATE=SAMPLERATE/K/N,FROM/M,VOL=VOLUME/K/N

Location: C:

STACK

Displays or sets the stack size within the current Shell.

Format: STACK [[SIZE] <stack size>]

Template: SIZE/N

Location: Internal

A Shell uses a certain amount of stack, a special area in memory allocated for it. Each Shell has a specific stack size. If a program causes a system failure, changing the Shell's stack size may solve the problem. Commands performing operations consisting of multiple levels can require additional stack space.

Stack sizes typically range from 4096 to 40000 bytes. If the stack size is too small, a system failure can occur. If the stack size is too large, it can use too much memory.

Note
A software failure message is displayed if you run out of stack space. Increase the stack space for the Shell that caused the error.

Entering the STACK command with no arguments displays the current stack size.

STATUS

Lists information about Shell processes.

Format: STATUS [<process>] [FULL] [TCB] [CLI | ALL] [COM | COMMAND <command>]

Template: PROCESS/N,FULL/S,TCB/S,CLI=ALL/S,COM=COMMAND/K

Location: C:

STATUS without any arguments lists the numbers of the current Shell processes and the program or command running in each. The <process> argument specifies a process number, limiting STATUS to giving information about that process only.

For information on the stack size, global vector size, priority, and the current command for each process, use the FULL keyword. The TCB keyword is similar, omitting the command information. The CLI=ALL keyword gives only the command information.

STATUS searches for a command when you use the COMMAND option. STATUS scans the Shell list, looking for the specified <command>. If the command is found, the Shell's process number is output, and the condition flag is set to 0. Otherwise, the flag is set to 5 (WARN).

Example 1

1> STATUS 1
Process 1: Loaded as command: status

Example 2

1> STATUS 1 FULL
Process 1: stk 4000, gv 150, pri 0 Loaded as command: status

Example 3

1> STATUS >RAM:Xyz COMMAND=COPY
1> BREAK <RAM:Xyz >NIL: ?

sends a break to the process executing COPY.

SWAPCD

Interchanges the current directory and a stacked directory.

TCC

Closes the ARexx tracing console window.

Format: TCC

Template: -

Location: C:

TCC closes the global ARexx tracing console as soon as all active programs are no longer using it. All read requests queued to the console must be satisfied before it can be closed.

TCO

Opens the ARexx tracing console window.

Format: TCO

Template: -

Location: C:

TCO opens the global ARexx tracing console. The tracing output from all active ARexx programs is diverted automatically to the new console. The console window can be moved and resized by the user and can be closed with the TCC command.

Example

1> TCO

Sample ARexx tracing console

TCP-HANDLER

Access network resources through AmigaDOS.

TCPDUMP

Dumps traffic on a network.

TE

Clears the ARexx global tracing flag.

Format: TE

Template: -

Location: C:

TE clears the global ARexx tracing flag, which forces the tracing mode to OFF for all active ARexx programs.

TEE

Sends data from the standard input to the standard output and prints it to the console.

TRACEROUTE

Prints the network route packets.

TS

Starts ARexx's interactive tracing.

Format: TS

Template: -

Location: C:

TS starts interactive ARexx tracing by setting the external trace flag, which forces all active ARexx programs into interactive tracing mode. Programs will start producing trace output and will pause after the next statement.

This command is useful for regaining control over programs caught in infinite loops or otherwise misbehaving. The trace flag remains set until cleared by the TE command, so subsequent program invocations will be executed in interactive tracing mode.

TYPE

Displays the contents of a file.

Format: TYPE {<file | pattern>} [TO <name>] [OPT H | N] [HEX | NUMBER]

Template: FROM/A/M,TO/K,OPT/K,HEX/S,NUMBER/S

Location: C:

TYPE outputs the contents of the named file to the current window if no destination is given or to a specified output file. The TO keyword types information to a specified file. If more than one file name is specified, the file names are typed in sequence.

The OPT H and OPT N options are also available by the HEX and NUMBER keywords, respectively. However, the two options are mutually exclusive. The HEX option types the file as columns of hexadecimal numbers, with an ASCII character interpretation column. The NUMBER option numbers the lines as they are output.

To pause output, press the Space bar. To resume output, press Backspace, Return, or Ctrl+X. To stop output, press Ctrl+C (***Break is displayed).

Example

1> TYPE S:Startup-sequence

The contents of the Startup-sequence file in the S: directory are displayed on the screen.

For more examples using TYPE, see Chapter 8.

UNALIAS

Removes an alias.

Format: UNALIAS [<name>]

Template: NAME

Location: Internal

UNALIAS removes the named alias from the alias list. With no arguments, UNALIAS lists the current aliases.

UNSET

Removes a local variable.

Format: UNSET [<name>]

Template: NAME

Location: Internal

UNSET removes the named local variable from the variable list for the current process. With no arguments, UNSET lists the current variables.

UNSETENV

Removes a global variable.

Format: UNSETENV [<name>]

Template: NAME

Location: Internal

UNSETENV removes the named global variable from the current variable list. With no arguments, UNSETENV lists the current variables.

UPTIME

Tells how long the system has been running.

VERSION

Finds software version and revision numbers.

Format: VERSION [<library | device | file>] [<version #>] [<revision #>] [<unit #>] [FILE] [INTERNAL] [RES] [FULL]

Template: NAME,VERSION/N,REVISION/N,UNIT/N,FILE/S,INTERNAL/S,FULL/S

Location: C:

VERSION finds the version and revision number of a library, device, command, or Workbench disk. VERSION can also test for a specific version/revision and set the condition flags if the version/revision is greater.

VERSION with no <library | device | file> argument prints the Kickstart version number and the Workbench version number and sets the two corresponding environment variables. If a name is specified, VERSION attempts to open the library, device, drive, or file and read the version information. Specify a device name, such as DF0: or DH0:, to get the version of the file system used by a drive.

When a <version #> or a <revision #> is specified, VERSION sets the condition flag to 0 if the version and revision number of the Kickstart, library, or device driver is greater than or equal to the specified values. Otherwise, the flag is set to 5 (WARN). If a revision number is not specified, no comparison on the revision number is performed.

The <unit #> option is obsolete and is retained for compatibility with older programs.

The FILE option forces VERSION to ignore libraries or device drivers currently loaded. This allows you to get the version number of a .library or .device file on disk when a library or device of that name is already in memory or available in LIBS:. The RES option gets the version of Resident commands. Built-in Shell commands have the same version string as the Shell. INTERNAL is also obsolete and retained for compatibility. The FULL option prints out the complete version of the string, including the date.

Examples

1> VERSION
Kickstart 40.70 Workbench 44.1

1> VERSION Alpha:Libs/xyz.library FILE FULL
xyz.library 1.13 (05/24/93)

WAIT

Waits for the specified time.

Format: WAIT [<n>] [SEC | SECS |MIN | MINS] [UNTIL ]

Template: /N,SEC=SECS/S,MIN=MINS/S,UNTIL/K

Location: C:

WAIT is used in command sequences or after RUN to wait for a certain period of time or until a specific time. The default waiting period is one second.

The <n> argument specifies the number of seconds or minutes to wait. These options are mutually exclusive; you can only enter seconds or minutes.

Use the keyword UNTIL to wait until a particular time of the day, given in the format HH:MM.

Example 1

1> WAIT 10 MINS

waits ten minutes.

Example 2

1> WAIT UNTIL 21:15

waits until 9:15 p.m.

WAITFORPORT

Waits for public message port to appear.

WBINFO

Opens Workbench information windows from a Shell.

WBRUN

Runs programs from Shell as if they were executed from the Workbench.

WBSTARTUPCTRL

Manipulates the startup configuration of Workbench.

WHICH

Searches the command path for a particular item.

Format: WHICH <command> [NORES] [RES] [ALL]

Template: FILE/A,NORES/S,RES/S,ALL/S

Location: C:

WHICH lets you find a specific command, program, or directory by entering its name. If the named item is in the search path, WHICH displays the complete path to that item. WHICH lists resident commands as RESIDENT and internal commands as INTERNAL.

Normally, WHICH searches the resident list, the current directory, the command paths, and the C: directory. If the item is not found, WHICH sets the condition flag to 5 (WARN), but does not print any error message.

If the NORES option is specified, the resident list is not searched. If the RES option is specified, only the resident list is searched.

The ALL switch continues the search through the full search path, finding and listing all locations of a command or program. It can, however, lead to multiple listings of the same command if that command is reached by more than one route (such as C: and the current directory).

Examples

1> WHICH avail
C:Avail

1> WHICH C:
Workbench:C

1> WHICH alias
INTERNAL alias

WHY

Prints an error message explaining why the previous command failed.

Format: WHY

Template: (none)

Location: Internal

When a command fails, the screen displays a brief message. This message typically includes the name of the file, if that was the problem, but provides no details. If the reason for a failure is not evident, enter WHY for a more complete explanation.

System Commands

System commands are required for normal system operation. They are used by the standard Startup-sequence or called automatically by the system for applications. The user does not typically invoke these commands.

ADDDATATYPES

Builds a list of data types that datatypes.library can understand.

Format: ADDDATATYPES [FILES] {filenames} [QUIET] [REFRESH]

Template: FILES/M,QUIET/S,REFRESH/S

Location: C:

Data type descriptors are stored in DEVS:DataTypes. These descriptors allow programs such as MultiView to interpret different data file types. ADDDATATYPES can also be called by application installation scripts to add their own data types to the list.

The FILES argument specifies the names of the data type descriptors to add to the existing list of data type descriptors.

Specifying the QUIET option suppresses error and output messages.

Specifying the REFRESH option scans the DEVS:DataTypes directory for new or changed data type descriptors.

BINDDRIVERS

Binds device drivers to hardware.

Format: BINDDRIVERS

Template: (none)

Location: C:

BINDDRIVERS loads and runs device drivers for add-on hardware. These devices are automatically configured by the expansion library if their device drivers are in the SYS:Expansion directory.

The BINDDRIVERS command must appear in the Startup-sequence file to configure the hardware when the system is booted.

CONCLIP

Moves data between console windows and the Clipboard.

Format: CONCLIP [CLIPUNIT | UNIT <unit number>] [OFF]

Template: CLIPUNIT=UNIT/N,OFF/S

Location: C:

CONCLIP is called from the standard Startup-sequence. It keeps track of the information that has been cut to the Clipboard.

The CLIPUNIT option allows you to specify the clipboard device unit number to use. Specify any unit from 0 to 255. The default number is 0. We recommend that this option be used only by advanced users or programmers who wish to use different units for different data, such as one for text and another for graphics. Run the command from the Shell, specifying the new unit number. The next time you copy and paste, that Clipboard unit is used.

Using the OFF option with Shell, MEmacs, and ED causes these commands to stop interacting with the system Clipboard during cutting and pasting operations. We recommend that you do not use this option.

IPREFS

Communicates Preferences information stored in the individual editor files to the operating system.

Format: IPREFS

Template: (none)

Location: C:

IPREFS reads the individual system Preferences files and passes the information to the system. IPREFS is generally run in the Startup-sequence after the Preferences files are copied to ENV:. Each time a user selects Save or Use from within an editor, IPREFS is notified and passes the information to the system. If necessary, IPREFS resets Workbench to implement those changes. If any Shell, project, or tool windows are open, IPREFS displays a requester asking you to close them.

SETPATCH

Makes ROM patches in system software.

Format: SETPATCH [QUIET] [NOCACHE] [REVERSE]

Template: QUIET/S,NOCACHE/S,REVERSE/S

Location: C:

SETPATCH installs temporary modifications to the operating system. It must be run at the beginning of the Startup-sequence file. Updated versions of SETPATCH are made available when necessary as AmigaDOS development continues.

If QUIET is specified, no output is sent to the screen.

NOCACHE prevents data caching from being activated on some 68030 and 68040 systems.

REVERSE stores patches in reverse order. This option is useful for CDTV developers only.